REPORT OF THE PROFESSOR OF BOTANY. xliii 



-son, have been placed in the cases with labels attached. The herbarium is now 

 in good order. Many additions have been made to the list of seeds, dried 

 "fruits and specimens in alcohol for use in the class room. 



THE BOTANIC GAKDEN AND ARBOEETUM. 



These have been well cared for, and have been improved in some respects. 

 The trees and shrubs are growiug larger, and as they need it some have been 

 removed. Former reports make it unnecessary to enter into details in this 

 iplace. Both garden and arboretum will be the subjects for future bulletins. 



EXHIBIT AT THE STATE FAIR. 



In the spring term of the sophomore year the agricultural students spend 

 'two hours daily in the laboratory investigating plants, each aided by a com- 

 pound microscope and other apparatus. For most of the time they all work on 

 'the same subjects, but each member of the class has a special topic to which he 

 gives more attention. Each student makes small drawings and notes as he 

 pursues his investigations. The drawings shown at the State Fair were the re- 

 tsult of "special work," and with the exception of a portion of three plates 

 were all original from nature. 



These are not selections but are all the drawings on the special topics which 

 were given to the students. Each student made other smaller drawings not 

 there exhibited. 



A glance at the drawings will reveal tlie name of the objects and the name 

 of the student making them. 



Below are the special topics, illustrated at the Fair, each by a card or two 

 ■ cards 23x31 inches: Structure of a leaf; the mouths of a leaf; the young 

 -hairs of a leaf ; the sting of a nettle; protoplasm in motion ; the palisade cells 

 in a leaf ; starch of the common potato and the wild Arizona compared; the 

 frame work of a leaf; the crystals in the cells ; the chlorophyll granules ; why 

 nuts are hard ; tough and brittle white ash as seen magnified ; the cells of oak; 

 the cells of an appe; intercellular spaces; cystolithes or compound crystals; 

 sections of buds ; cotton, flax, hemp, silk and wool; pollen and its growth; 

 the structure of a grain of wheat ; the leaf of a Norway spruce ; the hairs on 

 pumpkin vines ; experiments on j^rotoplasm ; sections of the leaves of grasses ; 

 root hairs ; the tips of roots ; the milk tubes in plants ; the structure of a 

 brown seaweed; a study of pond scums; diatoms; oscillatoria, water plants 

 which crawl and wriggle; wheat-rust; corn-smut; the quince-rust; common 

 bread mould ; a cup fungus. 



Here also were exhibited several kinds of compound microscopes such as the 

 students use, retailed at S40 to $60 each. And here was a convenient box in- 

 vented by the students and by Dr. Beal. The box is for holding the small ac- 

 cessories used by every student 



The work above spoken of was not attempted in any American college twelve 

 years ago. Students are taught to become independent workers. 



WHAT OTHERS SAT. 



In autumn of 1885 one of the editors of the Botanical Gazette spent two 

 'days at the Agricultural College, and in December there appeared what was 

 .■termed "A Laboratory number." 



This magazine has been ably edited for ten years, and during the last few 



