vinal COMMON MISTAKES IN NATURAL HISTORY 379 



A Providence lady once asked her gardener to plant salivias 

 near the walk. The gardener replied: Wouldn't spetunias look 

 good over there? 



What is a Germ? 



The etymology of the word germ is doubtful. The Latin word 

 germen means to sprout. In botany it refers to the rudiment of a 

 new organism. Huxley referred to the budding of corals, as 

 multiplying "by means of germs." In Linnaean nomenclature 

 it is the ovary or the seed. Muir and Ritchie's Bacteriology 

 says "germ, microbe, and micro-organism are often used as syno- 

 nyms with bacteria, though, strictly, they include the smallest 

 organisms of the animal kingdom" Evidently there i s ambiguity 

 in the use of the term amongst biologists. 



The answers of pupils may be listed as follows; the figure repre- 

 senting the highest per cent in any one class thinking that that 

 word is the meaning: Organism, 6; micro-organism, 36; micro- 

 animal, 14; micro-insect, 28; and bacteria, 70. The term organ- 

 ism is not used as often as a generation ago yet it ought not to be 

 confused with micro-organism which refers to a microscopic 

 animal or plant. Organism has come to be an abbreviated form 

 of micro-organism. 



What is a Meadow? 



Originally a meadow meant a hay field. Later it included a 

 pasture and in some places was extended to include a low well- 

 watered ground. In North America, according to the Oxford 

 Dictionary, it is "a low level tract of uncultivated grass land, es- 

 pecially along a river or in marshy regions near the sea." If we 

 condense this statement it might read, — a low, level, moist grass 

 land. The word meadow has been prefixed to the names of animals 

 and plants which occupy the meadow land, as meadow hen 

 (name applied to various herons) ; meadow-lark ; meadow-sweet 

 (spiraea) ; meadow beauty (rhexia or deer-grass) . The word 

 meadow occurs frequently in literature but without uniformity as 

 to meaning. 



Amongst students of today there are 80% who recognize that 

 it is a hay-field. It is a decidedly masculine trait to know that it 

 is in a low area, the knowledge being held in a ration of 4 males to 

 one female. Not more than 12% of any class, and only a total of 

 18 recognize that it is a low, hayfield. 



