Portion of diorama at north end of Hall 29 



FEATURED EXHIBIT FOR MAY 



Let's Go Uphill To Spring 



i 



n the northern hemisphere spring 

 comes to the calendar on March 21. 

 We recognize the season not only by 

 the date but by what the plants and, 

 perhaps to a lesser extent, what the 

 animals are doing. Some Chicagoans 

 may equate spring with the arrival of 

 the robins; others of us who haunt the 

 woods in the vicinity may hold that 

 spring is here when the spring beauties, 

 the trilliums, and other early flowering 

 plants are showing their first color. 



Judged by what the plants and ani- 

 mals are doing, spring does not come 



LOUIS O. WILLIAMS 

 Chief Curator, Botany 



to all places along any given degree of 

 latitude at the same time. On the first 

 morning of spring this year the robins 

 in Chicagoland may well have con- 

 sidered going back south, and about a 

 week later, on Easter Sunday, winter 

 came again. The grass, stimulated by 

 a week of warm weather, was under 

 a blanket of wet snow. In Rhode Is- 

 land, which is about as far north as 

 Chicago, spring was in evidence on 

 March 21, but westward in the high 

 mountains of Pennsylvania snow was 

 still the order of the day, with below- 



freezing temperatures at night. Down 

 off the Allegheny Mountains and out 

 into the Central States, spring seemed to 

 have been in the air, even if a bit pre- 

 maturely. Continuing westward and 

 across the Missouri River into the 

 Prairie States, where the land begins 

 to rise again, the weather got colder 

 as elevation was gained. 



We have now added a second "con- 

 dition" or dimension to spring when 

 we find that elevation, or the lack of 

 it, may retard or advance the arrival 

 {Continued on next page) 



MAY Page 7 



