294 PRACTICAL COURSE IN BOTANY 



projecting into the land. But the district where any class of 

 plants reaches its highest development is its proper habitat, 

 and as a general thing the one where its cultivation pays 

 best. It would be a waste of time and money to try to raise 

 cotton in Maine, or cranberries in Georgia. 



Practical Questions 



1. Does the native wild growth of a region furnish any indication of 

 the kind of crops which could be successfully grown there? (325, 326.) 



2. Can you give a reason why the zones of cultivation may, in some 

 cases, be more extensive than the natural range of wild plants in the same 

 region? (262, 265.) 



3. Can you give reasons why the reverse may sometimes be true ? (261, 

 284.) 



4. What crops are raised in different parts of your own state ? 



5. Name some of the native plants characteristic of different parts of 

 your state. What are its principal plant formations? 



Field Work 



1. Ecology offers the most attractive subject for field work of all the 

 departments of botany. It can be studied anywhere that a blade of vege- 

 tation is to be found. In riding along the railroad, there is an endless 

 fascination in watching the different plant societies succeed one another 

 and noting the variations they undergo with every change of soil or climate. 



2. Students in cities can find interesting subjects for study in the vege- 

 tation that springs up on vacant lots, around doorsteps and area railings, 

 and even between the paving stones of the more retired streets. On a 

 vacant lot near the public library in Boston, over thirty different kinds 

 of weeds and herbs were found, and in the heart of Washington, D.C., on 

 a vacant space of about twelve by twenty feet, nineteen different species 

 were counted. Just where such things come from, how they get mto 

 such positions, and why they stay there, will be interesting questions for 

 city students to solve. 



3. But the country always has been and always will be the happy hunt- 

 ing ground of the botanist. All the factors considered in the two pre- 

 ceding sections can hardly be found in any one locality, but by selecting 

 areas traversed by brooks, or by gullies and ravines, very marked changes 

 in the character of vegetation may often be observed. Barren, sandy, 

 or rocky soils, the sun-baked clay of naked hillsides, and the borders of 

 treeless, dusty roads will offer close approxunations to xerophyte con- 

 ditions. 



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