636 Reading-Course for Farmers' Wives. 



I. THE DUST-GARDEN. 



By S. Maria Elliott; 



Glass boxes fitted loosely with glass covers through which much that 

 goes on inside may be seen are shown in Figs. 168 and 169. 



One day they served as garden beds. The soil was a kind of beef- 

 broth jelly. The seed was ordinary dust from an ordinary room. 



The covered box had been baked for over an hour in a very hot oven. 

 The jelly had been steamed a number of times, until no possible living 

 thing could be therein. 



Fig. 168 shows a dust-garden planted after the room had been care- 

 fully swept. 



Fig. 168. — What grew in a dust-garden. 



When the cover was removed and the dust, raised by the broom into 

 the air, was allowed to settle on the soft sticky jelly, something happened. 



In about twenty- four hours little specks appeared which rapidly or 

 slowly grew larger and developed ditYerent colors. Unfortunately, the 

 photograph does not give the delicate greens, yellows and blues which the 

 different spots showed. As they grew larger, some spots showed a 

 feathery or velvety surface, and, like the one at the left side, a dark 

 center with dust flying from it. 



The other spots were shiny, wet or waxy in appearance, and never 

 showed any increase in height, or any dark, dusty center, 



