194 NATURE STUDY. 



The activity in nature study outside the schools, as in- 

 dicated by local items in the newspaper press, is a matter 

 of surprise. A few clippings taken at random, must stand 

 as examples of the whole. 



In New England and in the Middle Atlantic States 

 there is scarcely a village in which work of some sort along 

 nature study lines is not undertaken and regularly sus- 

 tained. There are Audubon societies, natural science 

 clubs, botanical classes and similiar organizations almost 

 without number, and the reports of their meetings appear 

 in the local press as regular and important contributions 

 to the news of the day. 



Farther west the work is taken up with equal ardor and 

 undoubtedly with equal intelligence, although the hapless 

 reporter sometimes finds himself, as it were, in deep water. 

 Thus we are gravely informed by the local paper at Car- 

 thage, Mis.souri, that the class in botany is engaged in 

 the study of a "zerophjtic" plant which had been .sent 

 from Arizona, and of a "sun-due." Readers of Nature 

 Study who have enjoyed Mr. Batchelder's papers on zo- 

 ophj'tes, including the sun dew, will have no difficulty in 

 perceiving the reporter's intent. The same class was 

 also fortunate in being able to study the pitcher plant, "so 

 called on account of the way it holds water, and thus 

 many insects are drowned, from which source the plant 

 gets its nitrogen supply." We are told that the specimens 

 were obtained from the botanical garden in Washington ; 

 a statement which will remind New England readers that 

 a plant or animal which is common in one section of the 

 country may be a rare wonder in another. 



At Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Professor McBride of the Uni- 

 versity of Iowa has delivered, during the winter, a series 

 of instructive lectures on "The Plant Responsive," which, 

 by the way, have attracted attention far beyond the limits 

 of the vState. 



