5 i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



During the second hour attention was called to the analytical 

 key as an aid in classifying plants, and the class as a whole was 

 instructed by carrying three plants successively through the key 

 to the species. At the same time blanks were filled which made 

 a record of each student's results of inspection. Pupils were now 

 ready to take the simpler plants and classify them at home, which 

 was done to a large extent by some members of the class. 



The fifth lecture was a treatment of the general subject of 

 fruits. The subject was illustrated by means of a large list of 

 fruits, freshly gathered from the field, supplemented with several 

 sorts procured at the store. Various seed-vessels may be found 

 in the spring that illustrate fully the methods of opening of the 

 dry fruits for the scattering of seeds, and these were drawn upon 

 at this seemingly unseasonable time for the study of fruits with 

 excellent results. The methods of pressing and mounting plants 

 were practically illustrated at the close of the hour, and a portion 

 of a herbarium placed within reach for inspection. 



During the class-hour fresh specimens were supplied, and each 

 pupil worked independently in large part in determining the 

 species. Particular attention was paid to fruits, and the twisting 

 of the cranesbill awns, for example, was seen by all. The sensi- 

 tiveness of the stamens of the barberry was likewise observed by 

 the class during the hour. 



For home work, besides the twenty pages in the text given for 

 each lesson, ten questions were asked in the syllabus, the answers 

 to which were handed in at the next meeting, along with the re- 

 ports upon " Topics for Study," likewise given in the syllabus. 

 Thus, under Fruits, two of the questions were " (4) In what par- 

 ticular does a strawberry differ from a rose fruit ? (6) Of what 

 advantage to a plant that its fruit is a highly colored berry ? " 

 Under " Topics for Study " one requirement was to " make draw- 

 ings of a cross-section of an orange and an apple." 



The sixth and last lecture of the course considered the flower- 

 less plants, or those forms of vegetation which are propagated 

 through spores and not by means of seeds. 



While upon the ferns, several species in quantity were in the 

 hands of the members of the class, and the method for classifying 

 them gone through with while the descriptive terms necessary 

 for this were being considered. Plates covered with fresh mosses, 

 some sterile and others in fruit, were passed around, while the 

 manner of spore-formation was illustrated by a large papier- 

 mache model of the moss capsule, that was dissected before the 

 class. Various groups of fungi were considered, some of the 

 larger forms shown, as the toad-stools, shelf fungi, and the like, 

 and several rusts were also exhibited. The lecture and the course 

 closed with a consideration of the various groups of sea- weeds, 



