THE SECEETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 2G5 



THE SCHOOL GARDEN. 



A pamphlet has recently been published in England, showing the necessity of 

 extending the knowledge of gardening and horticulture among the masses. 

 The necessity of this extension the writer, T. Wilkinson, argues is evident 

 from the amount annually paid by England for imports of agricultural and 

 horticultural produce when there are hundreds of thousands of acres of good 

 land entirely out of cultivation, — absolute waste. The remedy proposed is 

 the practical teaching of horticulture in schools to which plots of ground 

 should be attached. It would be difficult to give a good reason why something 

 should not be taught in schools of subjects in which all the world are inter- 

 ested, and by which more than half the people earn their bread. — Vick's Mag- 

 azine. 



A LIVE TEXT-BOOK FOR SCHOOLS. 



In the milder climes in which men began to lead studious lives, and where 

 the first schools were instituted, there were no Avails, nor windows, nor fires, 

 nor special seats. An academia, that is a grove, was the resort of the teachers 

 and their disciples. The silver-tongued Plato taught under the trees. Solo- 

 mon taught of all manner of plants, from the cedars to the starved shrublets 

 growing out of the wall. And our Savior's discourses seem to have been deliv- 

 ered in the open air, among the lilies of the field, or on tiie hillside, or while 

 passing fields of growing grain. "We have in our modern times invented great 

 conveniences under the stress of climatic necessity ; but we have become too 

 entirely artificial ; and, devoted to letters that are dead, we too much neglect 

 the texts that are living. As these cannot mislead, being the imprints and 

 facts of immutable Nature, teachers cannot go wrong in adding to the dry 

 paper and its inky impressions some notice of the developments of vegetable 

 life, if only enough to habituate children to observing and comparing for 

 themselves. 



Very soon the earlier tree-buds and blossoms will put forth — the golden cat- 

 kins of the willow, the curious bloom of the hazel with its crimson styles, and 

 the clustered blooms of maples, elms, etc., all draped and veiled with beauty 

 which charms the more as the examination grows closer, and is lovely beyond 

 any art when full light and the aid of a lens are given to aid the eye in its 

 inspection. These blossoms are abundant; it is easy to have enough for each 

 pupil to hold one; so as, with his own hands, to separate and view its parts, 

 synchronically with the teacher's dissections and descriptions, or blackboard 

 illustrations. If only a single feature is taken at a time, it is perhaps enough. 

 The petals, for instance, which attract us as they attract insects, and which 

 assure us that the rough world has germs of beauty all through it which we 

 shall sometime enjoy if we learn to regard them, or the finger-like or thread- 

 like stamens which, like the petals, can often be counted and compared with 

 the next day's and the preceding day's blossoms. These look weak and slen- 

 der, but every blossom has more or less of them ; for they hold the germs of 

 the seed, and pour them down the styles to grow; there can be no seed without 

 them. After a few talks, these and their stigmas, and the curious differences 

 of shape, color, size, etc., — such differences as we see in various kinds of dogs 

 or fowls, — will give unending interest to those saving lessons. — N. Y, Tribune. 



