Dreer's Garden Book Suggests Spring. 

 In the zero weather of the early part 

 of February, Dreer's Garden Book for 

 1917, together with some other seed 

 catalogues, was placed on our desk, 

 where and elsewhere it easily holds the 

 supremacy. It is a magnificent pro- 

 duction, not only from the horticultural 

 point of view, but from that of the 

 printer and the illustrator. It is a hor- 

 ticultural enclycopedia, in which one 

 may find illustrated and fully described 

 all the plants best suited to the garden, 

 both for utility and beauty, and their 

 beauty is not less useful than their 

 other good qualities. It would be well 

 if this catalogue could be used as a text- 

 book in every school in the land. With 

 it the children and the teachers could 

 together idscuss the common plants of 

 the field, and the special of the garden. 

 The knowledge thus acquired would be 

 really common sense knowledge. But 

 it will be a long, long time before one 

 may dream with any show of proba- 

 bility of such Pestalozzian ideals. The 

 reader will remember that the school- 

 master of his day believed in training 

 the child to know the objects of his 

 environment, and to do the things that 

 were worth while. That kind of voca- 

 tional training might be directly de- 

 rived from a study of Dreer's catalogue. 

 Because a thing is done as a matter of 

 l:)usiness and well done, it should on 

 that account be not the less but the 

 more highly prized. We are writing 

 this notice partly because Dreer is an 

 advertiser in The Guide to Nature, 

 but chiefly for the benefit of our read- 

 ers. Therefore we say without the 

 slightest hesitation or mental reserva- 

 tion that the best and most commend- 

 able illustrated catalogue that has thus 

 far reached our desk, best in every re- 

 spect, is the one sent out by Henrv A. 

 Dreer, 714-716 Chestnut Street, Phila- 



delphia, Pennsylvania. The firm of 

 Dreer has in the past few years fur- 

 nished a large part of the seeds used at 

 ArcAdiA, especially those that were 

 needed for very special experimenting. 

 They were absolutely satisfactor}-. 



The Experimental Method! 



"You mustn't go near the open win- 

 dows, dear," said a mother during 

 house cleaning time to her three-year- 

 old daughter. 'Tf you should fall out 

 on the ground, you would surely break 

 your neck." 



Betty followed her mother upstairs 

 and played happily with her doll for 

 an hour. Suddenly her mother missed 

 her from the bed and, noticing that the 

 door was closed, thought she was hid- 

 ing somewhere in the room. After a 

 playful search of a minute or two she 

 heard a patter of small feet in the hall, 

 and hastened to open the door. 



'Tt didnt break my neck, mother," 

 remarked the child as she resumed her 

 play with the doll. — Youth's Comjxm- 



Meehan's Marrow Marvels are Marvel- 

 ous. 



Some two years ago we ordered 

 about one dozen of these famous ma'- 

 low marvels for ArcAdiA. They have 

 been admired, perhaps more than any 

 other flower that has been grown in 

 ArcAdiA and encouraged by this we 

 last autumn put in one hundred. We 

 are sure that these in a year or two wi'l 

 attract great attention and will please 

 our visitors. 



But we do not want them merely in 

 ArcAdiA, What we do here we 1 ke to 

 see done elsewhere, as the very purpose 

 of our Institution is to suggest, stimu- 

 late and inspire in the observation of 

 nature. We cordially recommend the 

 reader to see the advertisement of Mee- 

 han's Mallow Marvels, and to send for 

 a liberal supply. 



