66 The Nature-Study Exhibition 



The Wild Flower Albums kept at Harrowden School, 

 Wellingborough, may be mentioned here : 



"The school managers provide two large blank books Daily 

 Graphic Albums. Each page is divided by the teacher into four equal 

 spaces. In Book I the teacher pastes on each page four coloured 

 pictures of wild flowers, published by Messrs. Cassell & Co. The 

 corresponding page in Book II has four spaces to contain pressed speci- 

 mens of the same four wild flowers. 



" The scholars gather the flowers (either during a school ramble or in 

 their own leisure time), press them, and on a stated day bring them to 

 school. The teacher selects the best specimen of each flower, which is 

 then placed in its proper page in Book II, and kept in position by 

 gummed strips of paper. 



"The children are particularly requested not to uproot the wild 

 flowers, but to gather flowers and leaves only." 



The methods of teaching at Bracon Ash and Hethel 

 Board School are briefly as follows: 



"A lesson is given at the beginning of each month, on the month 

 itself noting birds to be expected, flowers that bloom, work in the 

 fields and gardens, weather, &c. At the end of the month comparisons 

 are made with what has actually been verified and with anything that 

 has presented itself which was not commented upon at the beginning. 

 The children are encouraged to bring specimens of the first flowers seen, 

 or anything which they may come across the finder recording it in the 

 Nature Note-book. 



"The teaching is mainly conversational, but if anything special is 

 found, or an opportunity presents itself, a lesson follows." 



The work at St. Peter's National School, Stockport, is 

 thus described: 



"A school in the very centre of a town like the above, and with 

 children of the very poorest, is rather at a disadvantage in the cultiva- 

 tion of Nature-study in the fields as it ought to be. Still we have other 

 forms of nature to fall back upon. We have considered the physical 

 geography and geology of the immediate neighbourhood. We have 

 studied the course of the River Mersey, its meanderings, its formation 

 and deepening of the river valley, its formation of river terraces, and 

 alluvial deposits or flood plains, &c., and these we have shown in 

 wooden blocks the six wooden models exactly illustrating the River 



