SCHOOL GARDENS. 



45 » 



hand camera, made a series of lantern slides, which proved to be 

 of the greatest service for class instruction during the following 

 winter. A solar camera and a twelve-foot screen completed the 



A Corner of the Fernery. George Putnam School Garden. 



equipment for the most interesting and profitable kind of instruction 

 on the subject of ferns. 



The pupils of one class studied fifteen species somewhat minutely 

 by means of the slides and pressed specimens. Spores, sporangia, 

 indusia, sori, pinnules, pinnae, rachis, stipe, general shapes, tex- 

 tures, and relative position of parts were carefully observed, 

 drawn, described, and colored. Notebooks contained characteristic 

 parts of all the different species, which were broken up and dis- 

 tributed for the purpose. This study prepared the pupils to appre- 

 ciate the development of fern crosiers in the fernery in the following 

 spring. Twenty-two pupils out of the class of thirty-eight intro- 

 duced ferns into their own gardens at home. 



Other classes studied composite flowers, distribution of seeds, 

 roots, corms, tubers, bulbs, and other material supplied by the garden. 



In the spring of 1895 the development of fern crosiers was 

 studied with great interest by the pupils. The collection of lantern 

 slides soon included representations of the crosiers of the principal 

 species in various stages of growth. In some respects the pictures 



