118 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



Plants in the School Garden. — The greater part of 

 the school garden is Hkely to be devoted to growing vegetables 

 and flowers by the children, but no matter how large or small 

 the class may be, a part of the ground should be set aside for 

 specimens of unusual vegetation. In this plot may be grown 

 such specimens as flax, hemp, hops, tobacco, sugar-cane, cotton, 

 sorghum, broom corn, peanuts, sweet potatoes, artichokes, 

 millet, oats, barley, cow-peas and many more. A similar plot 

 may well be devoted to plant curios such as clovers with four 

 and five leaves, "everlasting" flowers, albino forms, dwarf 

 forms, cactus, edelweiss, bleeding heart, autumn crocus, four 

 o'clocks, and evening primrose. Room ought also to be found 

 somewhere for a line of shrubbery containing plants of special 

 interest such as the barberry, bladder-nut, hop-tree, silver bell, 

 witch hazel, prickly ash, buffalo berry, papaw, yucca, bitter 

 sweet, burning bush, and gingko. A course in gardening is 

 not alone for instruction and practice in raising vegetables and 

 flowers. Properly conducted it should open the minds of the 

 children to the beauties of all nature and leave them with a 

 lasting interest in things out of doors. 



Material for Study. — There are very few things in the 

 high school botanical course that cannot be studied at first hand 

 and this without recourse to many pickled specimens. As a 

 general thing the young student recoils at preserved material 

 but if fresh material be insisted upon, the teacher should have 

 a definite place in which to collect it, and not be expected to 

 range the countryside for miles around in search of illustrative 

 specimens. Few besides the energetic teacher realize the 

 amount of time needed for collecting; certainly high school 

 boards do not. The securing of proper material should be 

 made part of the day's work and if the teacher be allowed to 

 take the class on field trips in search of it, during the periods 

 allotted to the study, the results are excellent, since the pupils 



