BEGINNINGS IN BOTANY. 517 



flowers of the more simple types gathered from the fields and 

 furnished in abundance. Specimens of these plants, with blanks 

 to fill in connection with the study of them, were taken home by 

 the pupils. 



At this session a report of the daily observations of the seed- 

 ling bean, corn, flax, clover, and grass was submitted, and this 

 work in the home garden continued. Twigs were assigned for 

 study during the coming week, including a potato tuber that had 

 been planted by each pupil the week before. 



In the third lecture the subject of leaves was considered as to 

 parts, arrangement, types of framework (venation), simple and 

 compound forms, and various peculiar kinds of leaves were 

 shown, as pitchers, fly-catchers, etc. It was in this lecture that 

 some of the physiological principles of vegetation were brought 

 out, including the taking up of the soil-water, its passage to the 

 leaves, and the manufacture there, under the influence of sunlight, 

 of the various compounds, as sugar, starch, and oil, that may be 

 afterward employed in various ways in the economy of the plant. 



The microscopic structure of the pulp of the leaf was shown 

 by diagrams, and an insight was given into the cellular forma- 

 tion of tissues and their combinations into tissue systems. A 

 very large number of kinds of leaves freshly gathered were ex- 

 hibited to illustrate the many terms concerning foliage used in 

 the j classification of plants. In size and shape these varied 

 through all gradations, from the mere scales of the asparagus 

 and conservatory " smilax " to those of the garden rhubarb ; and 

 of the compound sorts, from the barberry with a single leaflet to 

 those of the columbine. 



The class-hour was devoted to the study of three plants, the 

 flowers of which illustrated as many widely separated types. 

 Thus the wistaria gave large peculiar blossoms of the pulse 

 family, and in this connection a papier-mache model of the pea 

 was dissected before the class, thus fully illustrating the several 

 parts, even to the coats and embryo of the forming seeds, by 

 means of a separate model of an enlarged pea-pod. 



In the fourth lecture the flower was considered, and, while the 

 parts had been previously learned in class-work with specimens, 

 the functions of the various organs were now explained by means 

 of diagrams and specimens. The many ways in which the pollen 

 of one flower is brought to the pistil of another were illustrated, 

 and the fact that close fertilization is the exception and not the 

 rule emphasized. The pupils were made familiar with the vari- 

 ous forms of flower arrangement by seeing the living examples. 

 Perhaps fifty kinds of plants in bloom were shown to illustrate 

 not only inflorescence but the form and union of the several parts 

 of individual flowers. 



