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SCHOOL BOTANY 



The Pleasures of Botany. — The veteran scientist, Dr. 

 Alfred Russell Wallace, recently celebrated his eighty-ninth 

 birthday and in reply to the felicitations of a group of biology 

 students wrote in part as follows : "The wonders of nature 

 have been the delight and solace of my life. From the day 

 When I first saw a bee orchis {OpJirys apifera) in ignorant 

 astonishment, to my first view of the grand forests of the 

 Amazon ; thence to the Malay Archipelago, when every fresh 

 island with its marvellous novelties and beauties was an ad- 

 ditional delight — nature has afforded me an ever increasing 

 rapture and the attempt to solve some of her myriad problems 

 an ever growing sense of mystery and awe. And now in my 

 wild garden and greenhouse the endless diversities of plant life 

 renew my enjoyments; and the ever-changing pageants of the 

 seasons impress me more than ever in my earlier days." 



Leaf Skeletons. — The making of leaf skeletons used 

 to be a favorite amusement in backwoods communities and was 

 often classed with the pressing of autumn leaves as mildly 

 interesting pursuits for those who played at studying nature. 

 Properly made, however, leaf skeletons have more than a 

 passing interest. A series of such subjects, well mounted 

 would be an valued addition to the botanical laboratory and to 

 other departments in which plant studies form a part of the 

 course. We give herewith two methods of skeletonizing 

 leaves though we cannot vouch for their effectiveness from 

 personal knowledge. However, they look workable and our 

 readers may care to experiment with them. By the first method 

 the leaves are placed in boiling water for two minutes and then 



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