234 THE PLANT WORLD 



salamanders had a natural existence. The delight of watching the growth 

 of the delicate and rapidly-growing forms of ferns was to be compared in 

 value only to the really great gain of knowledge which has stood me in 

 good stead all through life to the present time. The same results may be 

 obtained by enclosing the plants grown in window-boxes in a glass frame, 

 and the method of constructing such a frame is well described by W. P. 

 Hay. * By adopting some such device, which may be constructed at small 

 cost, the growing — if so it can be called — of the usual dusty , dried-up starve- 

 lings of the average school-room could well be avoided. I have seen 

 the method used in some schools in Chicago where they had liverworts, 

 mosses, ferns, etc.. growing well and in abundance. It is quite possible 

 for children to become acquainted with the commoner forms of all kinds 

 of plant life by the use of glass in the form of miniature conservatories 

 and aquaria. 



BOG WATER. 



It is well known that the plants which grow in peat bogs possess 

 anatomical characters similar to those of plants which grow in situations 

 exposed to dryness. This is explained by saying that peat bog waters 

 are physiologically dry ; that is, their composition or physical condition 

 is such that the plants whose roots are exposed to them have difficulty in 

 absorbing the water necessary to their physiological demands. It has 

 been believed that this is due to the large amount of substances in solu- 

 tion, which produces an unfavorable physical condition, by raising the 

 osmotic pressure. 



Livingston has, however, shown, as a result of the examination of bog 

 waters from various localities, that this explanation can not be regarded as 

 tenable. His general conclusion is that ' ' bog waters do not have an appre- 

 ciably higher concentration of dissolved substances than do the streams 

 and lakes of the same region, ' ' from which we must infer that if the char- 

 acters of bog vegetation depend upon the water, they must be due to the 

 chemical nature of the very small amounts of dissolved substances 

 present." 



Kearney t has shown that the soil-water of sea beaches and dunes 

 contains, contrary to the generally accepted notion, but a very small per- 

 centage of salts in solution. Samples were taken from various points on 

 the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. 



*" A Miniature Conservatory in a City Home," Country Life in America, 5: 249, January, 1904 ; 

 illustrated. See also Waters, C. E., "An Indoor Fernery," Plant World, 6: 87, April, 1903. 



t Kearney, T. H., " Are Plants of Sea Beaches and Dunes True Halophytes," Bot. Gaz., 37 : 4*4> 

 June, 1904. 



