children's gardens. 239 



The United States Government issues a bulletin on weeds used 

 in medicine, most of which are very common, and this knowledge 

 adds must interest in becoming acquainted with them. The 

 hardiness of weeds, their manner of bearing seeds, their pro- 

 lificacy, and means of distribution are all more interesting when 

 we come into the closer relationship which the garden work 

 gives. Even here we find that a weed or strange plant coming 

 up in the child's own plot will receive close attention and he will 

 want to know about it, when the same plant growing elsewhere 

 he does not care about. And it is this stimulated interest which 

 comes through the child's garden which makes the garden so 

 valuable to the teacher. 



Another item of great importance to the teacher : the garden can 

 be made to save many weary trips afield in search of material for 

 the class-room. Many earnest teachers to-day rob themselves of 

 hard-earned hours of freedom while collecting material for botany 

 or nature-study lessons, and then, perhaps, give their classes 

 plants or insects to study which the pupils in their daily life will 

 seldom come in contact with. Would it not be wise, and would 

 not material be more accessible, if our common vegetables were 

 used more in the class-room, and would not the resulting knowl- 

 edge of more lasting benefit to the pupils ? 



In the children's garden the whole life history of plants and 

 insects can be presented objectively, and this fixes the knowledge 

 as no other means can. 



Mr. Howard H. M. Bowman, in the June number of the Plant 

 World, speaks of the specific name of the tree of heaven as re- 

 ferring to the glands of the bark, which, he says, exudes when 

 injured a very sticky, resinous gum. Professor William Trelease, 

 in answer to a question addressed to him from the editor, writes : 



" I have not the original description of Ailaiithiis glandiilosa, 

 but extracts from it, published in Usteri's Annalen, immediately 

 after its appearance, show that the leaf glands are repeatedly re- 

 ferred to, sometimes by way of contrast with glandless things, 

 and I do not think there is any question as to what character the 

 specific name was intended to refer." 



