ii4 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



hung until the twilight fell some two 

 hours later. When I went out after 

 dusk, I found only one little one on 

 the veranda. Half an hour later, that 

 one was gone. The mother had re- 

 moved them one at a time, as a cat 

 would remove her kittens. I had 

 wondered how that little mother could 

 fly and carry those two young bats. 

 She did not. She took one away, 

 placed it in a safe place, and returned 

 for the other which apparently re- 

 mained quiet and obedient where she 

 had left it. 



Only Entomological Knowledge. 



A kindergarten teacher in one ot the 

 Stamford schools, thinking that she 

 would introduce a little nature study, 

 proposed to give a series of talks on 

 the subject. She selected what she 

 regarded as an interesting topic ; 

 namely, honeybees. To make her talk 

 clearly understood and to enlist the 

 interest of the children, she showed 

 pictures of honeybees, inquiring who 

 could tell what kind of insects they 

 were. 



There was an unanimous shout, 

 "Cockroaches." It seems evident that 

 their investigations in entomology had 

 not proceeded much beyond the limits 

 of the home, since cockroaches are the 

 only insects that they know. 



Indian Bread or Tuckahoe 



I am today mailing you a perfect 

 specimen of the fungus, Indian bread 

 or tuckahoe (Pachyma cocos), which, 

 as you will see, has formed about some 



THE INDIAN BREAD SUGGESTS A COCOANUT. 



dead root, probably oak. This is a 

 small one but perfect. I have one as 

 large as a man's head, but it is injured 

 slightly by plowshare. They are usually 

 found in new ground clearings and 

 form on oak and hickory roots mainly. 

 I have found them in all stages of 

 growth and it is very interesting to 

 note how the growth forms among the 

 cells of the half rotten wood and 

 pushes them apart, farther and farther, 

 till the brown color of the wood 

 changes to gray and eventually is en- 

 tirely lost and not a trace can be seen 

 with the naked eye, and the whole ap- 

 pears chalky white, and one would 

 never suspect there had ever been a 

 root there were it not for the ends pro- 

 truding as in this one. 



C. E. Pleas, 

 Chipley, Florida. 



THE INTERIOR OF THE INDIAN BREAD. 



