3 i6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



seeds themselves and the various food supplies stored within. By 

 experimentation they get general ideas of plant physiology, begin- 

 ning with the absorption of water by seeds, the change of the food 

 supply to soluble sugar, the method of growth, the functions, the 

 histology, and the modifications of stem, root, and leaves. In the 

 spring they study the buds and trees, particularly the conifers, and 

 the different orders of flowering plants. 



The particular merit of the work is that it is so planned that each 

 laboratory lesson compels the students to reason. Having once thus 

 obtained their information, they are required to drill themselves 

 out of school hours until the facts become an integral part of their 

 knowledge. 



For the study of fruits, for example, they are given large 

 trays, each divided into sixteen compartments, plainly labeled with 

 the name of the seed or fruit within. Then, by means of questions, 

 the students are made to read for themselves the story which each 

 fruit has to tell, to compare it with the others, and to deduce from 

 this comparison certain general laws. 



After sufficient laboratory practice of this kind they are re- 

 quired to read parts of Lubbock's Flower, Fruit, and Leaves, Kerner's 

 Natural History of Plants, "Wallace's Tropical Nature, and Darwin- 

 ism, etc. 



Finally, they are each given a type-written summary of the work, 

 and after a week's notice are required to pass a written examina- 

 tion. 



Zoology: The course begins in the fall with a rather thorough 

 study of the insects, partly because they are then so abundant, and 

 partly because a knowledge of them is particularly useful to the grade 

 teacher in the elementary schools. 



The locust is studied in detail. Tumblers and aquaria are utilized 

 as vivaria, so that there is abundant opportunity for the individual 

 study of living specimens. Freshly killed material is used for dis- 

 section, so that students have no difficulty in making out the internal 

 anatomy, which is further elucidated with large, home-made charts, 

 each of which shows a single system, and serves for a text to teach 

 them the functions of the various organs as worked out by modern 

 physiologists. 



They then study, always with abundant material, the other in- 

 sects belonging to the same group. They are given two such insects, 

 a bug, and two beetles, and required to classify them, giving reasons 

 for so doing. While this work is going on they have visited the bee- 

 hive in small groups, sometimes seeing the queen and the drone, and 

 always having the opportunity to see the workers pursuing their vari- 

 ous occupations, and the eggs, larvse, and pupce in their different 



