794 



Rural School Leaflet. 



As I watched these children at their work, I felt repaid for any effort 

 that had been made in developing the garden. They frequently asked 



the names of certain plants, and instead of 

 going with them to see each one, I asked 

 them to describe it. Sometimes they were 

 obliged to return to the plat or border to 

 get a more accurate description by which I 

 could recognize it. This was a valuable 

 lesson in accuracy of observation. 



During the afternoon many interesting 

 observations were made along the lines of 

 animal life. Two stages of the Monarch 

 butterfly were found, the larva and the 

 adult. The children captured an adult, 

 and without injuring it in any way, I was 

 able to show them its long tongue, and the 

 way in which it gets nectar from the 

 Viceroy butterfly, and we compared the 



Fig. Ss- 



-Chry sails of cabbage 

 butler fly 



flowers. They also found a 

 Monarch and the Viceroy, so much alike that close observation on the 

 part of the children was needed to determine the difference between 

 them. We kept on our school grounds a glass globe with mosquito 

 netting over it, under which the insects were placed for observation. 

 Young children get quite as much 

 benefit from this method of insect 

 study as from mounted specimens. 



Our young gardeners were much 

 interested in the toads that were 

 hopping about. They learned that 

 toads would not give them warts, 

 and that they make very interesting 

 pets. When the value of these little 

 creatures in helping to destroy injuri- 

 ous insects was discovered, the boys 

 and girls made effort to keep them on 

 their own garden plats. 



A little "bat" was found asleep up- 

 side-down in a sunflower. I told the 

 children that bats earn the privilege 

 of sleeping in the daytime, since, 



as Professor Hodge expresses it, ^ „^ _ ,, , „ ^ jj^^ ^ 

 . .^ ' „ ' Fig. S6— Cabbage bntlerfty. Upper fRiire 



They are little night police, and male; lower figure female. 



