1 5° THE X. I Tl 'RE-STUDY REVTE W [2 : 4 - A p K1 l, . 9 o6 



NOTES FROM SCHOOLS 



Poisonous Plants and Grazing Animals. In a lesson recenth given 

 in a New York private school reference was made to poisonous plants, e. g., 

 laurel, as protected against grazing animals. A bright child made the follow- 

 ing sensible comment: "How could a poison thus protect a plant? It 

 animals eat the leaves and die, how can they learn to avoid the poisonous 

 plants? It seems to me that the poison is simply an accident of birth.'''' This 

 comes very near expressing the views of many biologists who are skeptical 

 about the explanations of use viewed from our human standpoint. 



Anna N. Bigelow. 



Interest Of Pupils. As suggestive ot the interest agriculture is bringing 

 to the schools, one of our teachers at our recent summer school said that she had 

 difficulty in getting the pupils to school at the opening hour in the morning. 

 Her agricultural class was immediately after lunch hour in the afternoon. 

 She said that she had noticed that all the pupils were interested in this study, 

 and that she never had any tardiness or lack of interest when this recitation 

 was held. Noting this fact, she transferred the agricultural class to the first 

 thing in the morning and gave all of the pupils in school lessons in agricul- 

 ture and nature-study. At once tardiness came to an end. She had found 

 the secret of interesting her pupils in education, and after that she had no diffi- 

 culty in securing a full attendance, and having her rolls free from tardiness. 



C. \Y. BURKETT. 



NATURE NOTES 



Color Changes in Spotted Newt. A chameleon-like change of color 

 in the common spotted newt Diemyctylus has been recently described *bv 

 C. G. Rogers, ot Syracuse University. He has noticed that under certain 

 conditions these salamanders changed color in a remarkable manner. When 

 the animals were exposed to low temperature thev assumed a darker color. 

 When the water in which they lived was raised to a higher temperature they 

 became lighter, and when the temperature of the water became normal they 

 resumed the color they had at the beginning of the experiment. If the tem- 

 perature was kept constant and the intensity of the light changed they responded 

 as follows: if placed in darkness they became darker, and vice versa; but 

 these results were less pronounced than the temperature experiments. The 

 author believes that the change of color is probably controlled by the sympa- 

 thetic nerves. {Biological Bulletin, Vol. 10, pp. 165-170, March, 1906.) 



Elonia Andre, Detroit High School. 



