Junior Naturalist Monthly. 303 



THE LETTERS TO UNCLE JOHN. 



A few remarks on the kind of letters that are most pleasing to 

 Uncle John may be helpful to the members of the club. Following 

 are the most important points: 



1. Always give your address and be sure to sign your full name. 



2. Do not feel that you must write on all the topics suggested in the 

 Leaflet. Select those that interest you most. 



3. In your letters tell us the things that j'ou have found out for 

 yourself, not the things that you have read or that others have told 

 you. Uncle John would rather have you tell him two or three 

 simple things that you have learned from your own out-door study 

 than to have you write pages of facts that you have heard or read. 

 A very satisfactory letter reads as follows: 



My dear Uncle John: — 



A few days ago I found three trees which have been bored by the sapsucker. 

 On one tree the holes went all around the trunk and half way up the branches, 

 but on the two others the holes were scattered about. The trees I saw were 

 bored last spring by the sapsucker. As there was no sap near the holes, I think 

 he eats the inner bark of the trees, as the holes are quite deep. I have never 

 seen insects near the holes, so I do not know if the sapsucker eats them. I have 

 been looking for a sapsucker almost every day since the Junior Naturalist paper 

 came. 



The Hepatica. — Hepaticas grow in verj^ shady and damp places. I think 

 they get most of the sunlight during the spring before the leaves come out. 

 I did not see the first sign of Ufe, so I cannot tell you about it. The flowers come 

 first, and the leaves do not come until quite awhile after the flowers. The hepatica 

 has three different parts. The three small leaves are a part of the stem, as they 

 are quite a little distance from the flower. The stem is very long and hairy. 

 The new leaves of the hepatica that I saw, looked very fuzzy on the outside and 

 not at all so on the inside. I did not watch the leaves unfold, as I did not have 

 a hepatica in a pot. I have found the hepatica in three different colors, — blue, 

 pink and lilac. I think some smell sweeter than others, and I also think the color 

 has a great deal to do with it. On a sunshiny day the hepatica is wide open, 

 and on a stormy day it is closed up tight. I think the hepatica has from ten to 

 twenty-five seeds. 



Your niece, 



Sallie. 



Junior Naturalists ask many questions. We are glad of this. We 

 intendto answer every question. Last school year LTncle John received 

 from Junior Naturalists 33,171 letters. 



