282 THE NA TURE- S TUD Y RE VIE W [4:9- 



1908 



the flayed end of a piece of cedar. Red spiders occasionally 

 make their appearance if a dry atmosphere is maintained, but 

 may be removed by spraying the plant with clear water forcibly 

 applied through a hose or syringe. For the general health of the 

 plants it is well to scrub the pots occasionally. Tobacco stems 

 scattered about the pots for a few days will soon rid the plants of 

 many unwelcome visitors. 



While much more might be written on window plant culture, I 

 have endeavored to bring out those points of special importance 

 and to give some hint of an interesting field for experimental 

 work in the school. The simplest exercise in soil making, potting 

 or watering may arouse in the child a greater interest in plant 

 lore, and the ultimate results may be far reaching. 



THE NATURE-STUDY SITUATION IN ILLINOIS 



By FRED L. CHARLES 

 State Normal School, De Kalb, Illinois 



From what has appeared in The Nature-Study Review and 

 elsewhere it is apparent that in matters with which this publica- 

 tion is especially concerned conditions are practically the same 

 throughout the country. The field has been cultivated more or 

 less assiduously and often with disastrous results; but better 

 methods are being introduced, a better understanding of the 

 aims prevails, those who were proceding somewhat timidly 

 though on a sound basis are becoming bolder, and every year able 

 men are joining the ranks. At the Cleveland meeting of the 

 N. E. A. last summer, in section programs, in the lobbies and at 

 the meeting of the American Nature-Study Society the most strik- 

 ing feature to an interested observer was the number of univer- 

 sity men of the- first rank who are allying themselves with this 

 movement. 



This we believe to be a fair statement of the situation in Illinois 

 today. Quoting from a paper by the present writer, read at the 

 fifty-third annual meeting of the Illinois State Teachers' Associa- 

 tion, in 1906, on "What has been accomplished by the Nature- 

 Study Movement," "The advance line thrown out fifteen years 

 ago comprised three groups of skirmishers: First, those whose 

 aim invariably was too high, who overshot the mark; second, 

 those who in the midst of battle found themselves devoid of 



