58 THE PLANT WORLD. 



Every plant in the clearing that has survived the ordeal of ex- 

 posure is a study of adaptation, the reason for the change in some 

 instances not being upon the surface; but this only adds to the interest 

 that is centered in the clearing and its surroundings. 



This is the newer botany. It is not yet in books, and, in one 

 sense, never can be. It inheres in the plants themselves, and any at- 

 tempt to lodge it elsewhere must needs be futile. I trust each 

 teacher of the science of botany may find field for study in the sense 

 of the clearing above briefly outlined. 



It may be more convenient for some student and teacher, and 

 one needs to be both to be the latter, to have a garden patch where 

 plants may be asked various questions. If it is in the line above in- 

 dicated, its shading, total or partial, may be easily arranged. For 

 example, a half shade may be provided by placing frames of lath on 

 stakes. The frames may be made for a few cents, by nailing ordinary 

 carpenter's laths to cross laths at the ends with a single lath inter- 

 woven through the middle. If half-shading is desired, let the vacant 

 spaces between the laths be equal to the width of the laths. Under 

 such a shading ordinary plants, like bush beans, lettuce, etc., may be 

 grown, and the variations in time of germination, size of plant, of 

 leaf, time of blooming, size of fruit, longevity, etc., can all be studied 

 with no small amount of interest and profit at a minimum of expense. 



Should you like to make a record of the difference in thickness, 

 for example, between the exposed and shaded leaves, it can be done 

 by actual measurement, but there is another way not mentioned in 

 the books. Place the bean leaflets, one from the open and one from 

 the shade, upon a slip of clean glass in a photographer's printing 

 frame, and over the two specimens lay a sheet of sensitized paper, 

 and expose them to the sun. When the work is done you will have a 

 print of each, but the thinner one from the shade will have recorded 

 the fact in the darker print. In short, the sun will have made its 

 own registration of its own penetrability. 



Nothing that has been named in the way of apparatus is expensive 

 in the ordinary sense. Any one who can afford to have a bicycle and 

 keep it in repair, is able to follow up the suggestions. That a child 

 of nine years can be interested in this study of plants is certain, for 

 it has been tested by the writer to his entire satisfaction. 



In the recently issued September number of the Journal of Applied 

 Microscopy, Prof. C. J. Chamberlain, of the University of Chicago, 

 has a valuable article on the preparation and mounting of filamentous 

 algse and fungi for study under the microscope. It will undoubtedly 

 be found of much value to teachers. 



