INDIANA Iloi; 1 ICLl/ri-iJAL SOCIKTV. 301 



old-tiuie floAvers, aud she could and did make them grow. That garden 

 was a thing of boautj' never to be forgotten. Not only was this ber 

 reward, for every one of her oliildreii grew to love the (lowers and 

 the beautiful. Not only should attention be given to the beautifying 

 of our gardens, but also to the unsightly places about our houses. 1 

 have brought with me some photographs showinu' what can be doue 

 with these unsightly places; also one s'howing a cliildren's garden with 

 its allotments. 



Of late years I have become much interested in the growing of 

 perennial plants. About us we have such an abundant variety of them 

 that are so I)eautiful and satisfactory. All that is necessary is to 

 prepare a place for them and plant them in our gardens. In doing 

 this the children will become much interested, and will rapidly get a 

 knowledge of the '•common things" about us. In tiuwer gardening 

 tlJere is much incentive for work, and much information and pleasure 

 is to be derived from it. Why these tlowersV Why their various shapes 

 aud colors? What of their various parts? How are they polleuized? 

 How is their fruit distributed? These and many other (luestions can 

 be brought to the attention of the childi-en in their cuitivatiou. .\ 

 very beautiful and instructive book by Nettie LJlanchau was published iu 

 1901. entitled "Nature's Garden. " the scheme of which is to show how 

 the wild flowers are poUenized. From the preface of tlie Itook I make 

 the following quotation: 



"Is it enough to know merely the name of the flower you meet 

 in the meadow? The blossom has an inner meaning, hopes and fears 

 that inspire its lirief existence, a scheme of salvation for its species 

 in the struggle for survival that it has slowly perfected with some 

 insect's help through the ages. It is not a passive thing to be admiretl 

 by human eyes, nor does it waste its sweetness on the desert air. It 

 is a sentient being, impelled to act intelligently tlnough the same strong 

 desires that animate us, aud endowed with certain powers differing 

 only in degree, but not in kind, from those of the animal creation. 

 Desire ever creates form. Do you doubt it? Then study the mechanism 

 ol one of our common orchids or milkweeds that aie adjusted with 

 such marvelous delicacy to the length of a bee's tongue or of a butter- 

 fly's leg; learn why so many flowers have sticky calices or i)rotoctive 

 hairs: why the skunk cabbage, purple trillium. and carrion flower emit 

 a fetid odor, while other flowers, especially the wliite or pale yellow 

 night bloomers, charm with their delicious breath: see if you can not 

 discover why the immigrant daisy already whitens oiu" tields with 

 descendants as numerous as the sands of the seashore, whereas you 

 may tramp a whole day without Hnding a single native ladies' slipper. 

 What of the sundew that not only catches insects but secretes gastric 

 juice to digest them? What of the bladderwort. in whose inflated traps 

 tiny crustaceans jire imprisoned, or tlie pitciier-plant, that makes soup 



