12l8 



The Cornell Reading-Courses 



family, date, and the sort of place where each plant preferred to grow, is 

 a good exercise for both mind and body. 



Few persons note the beauty of blooming trees ; the white mass of bloom 

 on the cherry and apple trees or the pink clouds on the peach may catch 

 the eye, but that the oaks and elms and evergreens have flowers, too, is a 

 surprise to many. Yet the trees last mentioned have very interesting 

 flowers to study, particularly those which, like the nut-bearers and conifers, 



Fig. 74. — A clump of bishop' s-cap 



have their pollen-bearing and seed-bearing flowers on different parts of the 

 tree, or, like the willows and poplars, have them on separate trees. 



Children should be encouraged to take notes on the trees of the neigh- 

 borhood, beginning early in the season: observing when the buds begin 

 to swell; the arrangement of the buds; whether a bud develops into a. 

 blossom or a leaf; whether the leaves or the blossoms first appear; the 

 shape and color of the blossoms; the color and position of the leaves when 

 they first appear; the different stages of the unfolding of the leaves. If 

 an attempt is made to draw what is observed, the eye is greatly helped to 

 " see what it looks like." 



