62 THREE KINGDOMS. 



of size, structure, habitat; whether certain families 

 are more common in some places than others, and 

 why? 



IV. Local Flora, the plants of a certain locality, a wood, 

 meadow, railroad-bank, swamp, etc. Follow up a 

 brook, find what plants accompany it, why they are 

 absent in some places and abundant in others. A 

 waste piece of land; see what weeds, shrubs or trees 

 are there; how they came, which were first arrivals, 

 why not all the immigrants remained. Or try to ac- 

 count for the large number of plants often found 

 crowded in the same field. 



V. Plants found growing without cultivation within the 

 city limits; account for their presence; note whether 

 they are transient, or appear from year to year. 



VI. Make a study of the many parasites found on plants. 

 (With these, microscopes should be used.) 



VII. Make comparative studies of buds, roots, leaves, 

 bark, leaf-scars, pith, etc.; get many specimens to 

 compare form, size, structure; see how similar func- 

 tions are performed in very different ways, or how 

 similar organs have very different offices; e. g., see 

 how climbing may be accomplished in one plant by 

 twining, in another by tendrils, a third by rootlets, a 

 fourth by hooks, etc., or learn how one tree may have 

 its buds protected by scales, another by wool, a third 

 by varnish, etc. 



VIII. Collect and study different kinds of wood; quality, 

 color, uses, structure, etc. Make sections and study 

 with the microscope; note the difference between 

 heart-wood and sap-wood, or between roots and 

 branches, or the nature of woody climbing plants. 



