northrop] FLOWER SHOWS IN CITY SCHOOLS 105 



authorities in 1900 allowing' us to give the exhibitions in the 

 public schools. Their scope was widened and garden flowers as 

 well as fruits and vegetables were included. The Public Educa- 

 tion Association now took an active interest in the work and 

 appointed a Nature-Material Committee, to whose helpful cooper- 

 ation much of the success of the exhibitions is due. 



From 1900 to 1903 three flower shows were given each year. 

 The first was held early in May so that Arbor Day would be 

 included, and special efforts were made to have the trees largely 

 represented. A second spring show was given two or sometimes 

 three weeks later, when not infrequently nearly two hundred kinds 

 of flowers were on exhibition ; and a fall show was held about the 

 middle of October, when fruits and vegetables formed a promi- 

 nent part of the exhibits. In December of 1903 a fourth or mid- 

 winter exhibition was given of such miscellaneous material as 

 could be collected at that season of the year or kept over from 

 the summer ; for example, birds' nests, wasps' nests, cocoons, galls, 

 shells, starfish, lichens, woody fungi, budding twigs and ever- 

 greens. The experiment proved a success and so evidently filled 

 a need of the schools that the plan was continued and a second 

 midwinter show has just been given. This was found to be so 

 helpful that, at the general request of principal, teachers and the 

 district superintendent, it was kept open for ten days in order 

 that the children and teachers of the neighboring schools might 

 profit by it. Being given in a building used as a Girls' Recrea- 

 tion Center, it was open evenings as well as by day. In all, 

 seven exhibitions have been given in the schools, each time in 

 a different building but always in sections where work of this 

 kind is most needed and where we find principal and teachers 

 willing to cooperate with us. 



As a rule, the only available space for the exhibitions is a por- 

 tion of the playground on the ground floor. Saw-horses and 

 planks, kindly provided by the Supply Department of the Board 

 of Education and sent from school to school as they are needed, 

 furnish the necessary tables. As flower-holders we use all the 

 pails, jars, pitchers, etc., available in the building, supplemented 

 by vessels of all sorts and kinds, proudly loaned by the children, 

 who like to feel that they are helping. 



While we strive to make the exhibitions as attractive as pos- 

 sible from the artistic standpoint, still, as has been said, their 



