OF INTEREST TO TEACHERS. 69 



the down of the young leaves is used in fiUing mattresses and 

 pillows ; and the nuts are fashioned into various vitensils. 



In the Ravine of the Coco de Mer. on one of the islands of the 

 Sevchelles. the trunks of these beautiful palms rise to a height 

 of ninety or a hundred feet, and bear aloft a handsome crown 

 of leaves often twenty feet long and ten or twelve feet wide. 



U. M. B. 



OF IXTEREST TO TEACHERS. 



Edited by Dr. C. Stuart Gager. 



Forestry in the Public Schools. In the September (1905) 

 number of Forestry aiul Irri:j;atioii A. Xeilson gives some sugges- 

 tions on how to interest children in the practical side of forest 

 growth. He advocates that each country school have a small 

 nursery, of about one quarter acre or even less, to be planted with 

 trees and taken care of b\- the pupils. From two to four hours 

 a week are suggested as being sufficient for the forestry work, 

 whicli should include the setting out of seedlings, about six 

 inches high, the planting of tree seeds and the care of the nur- 

 sery. I'upils should collect the seeds and seedlings from the 

 woods. Correlated with this field work there should be " little 

 lectures on tree matters "' given to the children in the woods. 



''A large number of trees can be grown on a nursery of one 



fourth of an acre, and giving three years as the age of removal 



from the nursery, the plantings should be more than a third of 



Editor's Note. — The study of trees is surely becoming more and more 

 a factor in modern botany teaching. The Department of Agriculture is 

 leaving no stone unturned to interest the public in the physiographic and 

 economic importance of trees in general, and the above abstract would 

 seem to be an indication that this work is bearing fruit. Nearly every 

 locality, also, contains trees of individual interest, which are quite un- 

 known to people of other localities, and we are glad to have been able to 

 publish articles such as that on the Hop-Hornbeam, by Miss Mary S. 

 Van Hook, in the January issue of the Plant World; and Miss Taylor's 

 account of the Georgia Bark or Quinine Tree, in the February issue. We 

 are indebted to Mr. George V. Nash for the facts contained in the account 

 •of a tree of the tropics, the Coco de ^Nler, a specimen of which is to be 

 seen at the New York Botanical Garden. Next month, Mr. J. C. Blumer 

 will tell of an interesting tree of the southwest, the .\lligator Juniper. 

 We shall be glad to receive other descriptions of trees in different parts 

 of the world. 



