CHAPTER V. 



AFTER THE RAINS. 



The time for this lesson in the average year in Southern California 

 is December. It should not be taken up until the seedlings and early 

 perennials are well started, and are in the characteristic condition of 

 plants that have a good supply of water. As in the lesson on autumn 

 plants, this chapter in the Reader should, by all means, be pre- 

 ceded by a field-day lesson conducted by the teacher. Perhaps after 

 these two excursions by the class as a whole, children can be trusted 

 to collect material for other lessons by themselves. If this field 

 lesson can be undertaken before the holidays, it will be a 

 stimulus to the children to undertake like expeditions by themselves 

 during the holiday vacation. It would be well to call for a collection 

 of ferns, liverworts arid mosses for the first lesson after vacation. The 

 liverworts, mosses, and ferns growing from prothallia (see Fig. 30,) 

 should be shown the class on this excursion. The experiment with 

 the bur-clover seeds, too, should precede the use of the Reader. Put 

 some free seeds, also some burs containing seeds, on moist sand, 

 cover with glass and keep warm. The burs should be somewhat 

 anchored by sprinkling a little sand over them, so as to imitate the 

 condition of the wayside burs. The experiment will require three or 

 four days, and it is well to first soak the seeds and burs a few hours. 



This chapter of the Reader needs little exposition. The first part 

 is but a summary of what the children should have already observed. 

 The question of the use of the clover seeds remaining in the bur, 

 should have been proposed, but not answered, except as the children 

 have thought out the answer for themselves. A main physiological 

 point of the lesson is to show the behavior of plants that have plenty 

 of moisture but not much heat. Obviously a stretching or spreading 

 out to the sun will be a most striking phenomenon. Malva leaves face 

 the sun persistently, and, on account of their long petioles, easily 

 avoid shading one another. The bur-clover, Medicago denticulata, 



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