160 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9:6— Sept., 1913 



In a more general application we may note that one of the 

 chief problems which the teacher has to solve is to adapt the 

 subject matter to the capacity of the child. Now the results of 

 the first set of questions showed that the lower grades were much 

 impressed with the color and size of animals. But it must not be 

 supposed that this is to be taken as an indication that in these 

 grades the study is to be confined to the mere consideration of size 

 and color. The significance of this is that these features may 

 serve simply as an entering wedge to interest the child and to 

 introduce to him Nature's inhabitants, which should then be 

 studied from the standpoint of their life activities, such as their 

 feeding habits, mode of locomotion, habitat, use to mankind, 

 songs and sounds, rearing of the young and other related topics, 

 by means of which the interest may be maintained and increased. 

 That the children noted the color and size more in the lower grades 

 and the activities more in the upper grades is, without doubt, an 

 index of the children's knowledge. The younger ones were 

 restricted largely to a knowledge of the mere appearances, while the 

 older ones had been learning more about the habits of the animals ; 

 and that the children as soon as they came to know more about 

 animals showed the tendency to be more impressed by their 

 habits and other activities, shows along what line the interest of 

 the child is to be chiefly aroused, that is through life, which forms 

 the keynote to Nature and Nature-study. 



A Wild Flower Garden 



Norman E. Nelson. 



(Read before Nature-Study Club of Rockford, Illinois, April 14, 19 13.) 



If you are a lover of the flowers and ferns of wood and field, 

 then by all means have a wild flower garden, provided you have 

 a spot of ground shaded at least a part of the day from the burning 

 rays of the sun. There may be various kinds of wild flower or 

 fern gardens. A very attractive one of ferns alone could be 

 made. You may have one of orchids, one of composites, of 

 flowers that bloom only at one season, or flowers of one color. 

 But I will endeavor to treat only a general wild flower garden 

 such as we have at our home. 



