108 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [i, 3. may 1905 



are usually very glad to avail themselves of the offer — they are 

 piloted about the exhibition when the children are not there and 

 a running talk is given on the specimens, bringing out their 

 special points of interest, also directing how to keep them and 

 make the most of them in their class-rooms. At the close of the 

 exhibition everything that can be kept is taken to the school- 

 rooms to do duty again in the regular nature-study work, often 

 to serve as models for drawing and subjects for compositions. 

 All else is distributed among the children, and usually the common 

 flowers are received in such generous quantities that many boxes 

 may be sent directly to the schoolrooms and given out to the chil- 

 dren at once. Many times every child in the school has had at 

 least one or two flowers to take home. 



Our flowers and specimens come from many different people 

 and from many places, not only in Xew York, Xew Jersey and 

 Connecticut, but sometimes from an even greater distance. Many 

 generous boxes come from the country estates of wealthy people 

 who have been interested in the work, many through personal 

 friends of the workers. The Park Commissioner has sent us gen- 

 erous contributions from Central Park ever since the work began, 

 principally branches of shrubs and trees ; and near-by chapters 

 of the National Plant, Flower and Fruit Guild have frequently 

 contributed. For a number of years various Junior Naturalist 

 Clubs under the direction of Air. John \Y. Spencer sent great 

 boxes of flowers, often the largess of their own little gardens. A 

 number of schools, many of them in the country, have sent to us 

 regularly. It seems a particularly happy arrangement to have 

 these country children send of their abundance to their less fortu- 

 nate city cousins, and we feel that the work benefits both ends of 

 the line. Sometimes individual names will come with each bunch 

 of flowers ; in this case each child receives a note of thanks from 

 the city boy or girl who receives the flowers. The names of all 

 the donors are kept, and the children write letters of thanks as 

 part of their work in English. These letters are often very inter- 

 esting, telling of the flowers that pleased them most, how they 

 " never dreamed there could be so many kinds of flowers " ; how 

 they had often read about certain flowers but " had no idea they 

 looked like that," and almost always, " what a nice smell the 

 flowers had " — that seems to appeal to them all. 



In order that zeal for the flower shows will not tend to the 



