82 HOUSE, GARDEN, AND FIELD 



natural history club for several years without papers, 

 lectures, or local lists. The members are simply invited 

 to bring natural objects to show. They shortly explain 

 them, draw illustrative pictures, and answer questions. 

 Conversation is started, and goes on till the president 

 thinks a change of subject desirable. Nobody rises to 

 speak except the exhibitor, who usually stands at the 

 blackboard. Three or four objects fill the hour, and an 

 hour or a little more is found to be enough. The discus- 

 sion is preceded by a cup of tea and half an hour's chat. It 

 is not thought good form to bring bought preparations. 

 Living things, especially living plants, furnish a great part 

 of our exhibits. No collections are displayed. No special 

 value is attached to an object merely because it is rare. 

 The members of this particular club have all qualified for 

 admission by attending a course of biological instruction 

 for at least a year. Except in colleges, the standard would 

 be lower, or there would be no standard at all. It is in- 

 dispensable that at least one competent naturalist, skilled 

 in the use of the microscope, should be there to direct and 

 explain. 



I will next mention a few natural objects, which may 

 profitably occupy the attention of a club of amateurs. 



(a) Preparations illustrative of the structure of a green 

 leaf. 



(b) Mouth-parts, antennae, compound eyes, tracheae, 

 gizzards, feet, &c., of the commonest insects. 



(c) The details of a feather. 



(d) The mechanism of a bird's wing. 



(e) Live tadpoles. 



(/) Stages of the life-histories of common insects (dragon- 

 fly, blue bottle, tiger moth, &c.). 



(g) Pollen-grains and pollen-tubes. 



(h) The " flowers " and capsules of a moss. 



(i) The spores, spore-cases and prothalli of a fern. 



Diatoms, desmids, polycystina, &c., are generally tire- 

 some and unprofitable, because they are not treated as 



