THF 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



DEVOTED PRIMARILY TO ALL SCIENTIFIC STUDIES OF NATURE 

 IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 



Published monthly except June, July and August. Subscription price, including mem- 

 bership in the American Nature Study Society, SI. 50 per year (nine issues,!. Canadian post- 

 age 10 cents extra, foreign postage, 20 cent extra. 



Editorial 



The Falling Leaf 



The old, black cherry tree which poses artistically four seasons of 

 the year in front of the Editor's window keeps her leaves green 

 until after all other trees except the oaks stand bare; then she 

 changes her colors gradually to an orange film over glowing yellow 

 until one day in November the climax of her beauty is reached, and 

 she stands arrayed in gorgeous draperies, the peer of an Oriental 

 Princess; this lasts but a day, then the leaves begin to fall; with 

 every breeze they come shimmering down to lay a Persian carpet 

 at her feet; one day later she stands demure and unadorned as if 

 she had taken orders and like a nun had turned her back upon the 

 pomp and vanities of the world. 



What of the leaves! They sail down so happily, they play 

 with the wind until they find resting places in corners and in 

 windrows there to stay until through the kindly alchemy of 

 Nature's Laboratory they give up their component elements and 

 thus, through transmutation, gain the immortality decreed to all 

 physical death. Death to the leaf is merely a new start toward 

 other activities. New activity, wider realms and new energies for 

 action,— this is what Chemistry teaches us is the result of death of 

 our physical bodies. 



What an opportunity the Nature-Study teacher has to save 

 the child from the horror of death; for death in a child's mind has 

 to do with the body alone. W. H. Hudson in his charming 

 volume of childhood reminiscence tells vividly of his feeling when 

 at the age of six he witnessed the burial of their pet dog, old 

 Caesar. And when he listened to the words of the schoolmaster 

 "That's the end. Every dog has his day and so has every man, 

 and the end is same for both. We die like old Caesar, and are 

 put into the ground and have the earth shoveled over us :" Hudson 



392 



