comstock] observation BEE-HIVE 109 



destruction of any of our wild plants, those who send are re- 

 quested to cut the flowers carefully, not to send roots, and when 

 a flower is rare in any locality, not to gather it at all. Many 

 flowers are collected in the suburbs of New York City, but in 

 these cases the collections are made on the land that is there being 

 constantly invaded for building purposes. No effort is made to 

 secure the rarer wild flowers except a few, such as the arbutus 

 and the fringed gentian that the children have learned poems 

 about and whose acquaintance they make with delight. The most 

 common flowers, as we have seen, are rarities to the children and 

 we try to have these in such abundance that they will never forget 

 them. We often have pails and pails full of cherry and apple 

 blossoms, of lilacs and dogwood, asters, goldenrod and daisies ; 

 and basins heaped high with buttercups, violets, star of Bethlehem 

 and clover. 



In conclusion, the principals of the schools in which the exhibi- 

 tions have been given all testify to the lasting impressiofl they 

 make on the children and to the impetus given to nature-study 

 throughout the school. This reaches the teachers as well as the 

 children, for in many cases these shows are a revelation to the 

 former as well as the latter. A number of the superintendents 

 are now interested in the work, and last year some good photo- 

 graphs were taken for the Public School Exhibit at St. Louis. 



OBSERVATION BEE-HIVE FOR THE SCHOOLROOM 



BY ANNA BOTSFORD COMSTOCK 

 Cornell University 



The habits of social insects are most interesting from the human 

 standpoint. We are interested in them because of the successful 

 socialism that prevails in the bee-hive, the ant-nest and the wasp 

 habitation ; the perfect way they manage their communal affairs 

 is to us nothing less than marvellous, especially since there is no 

 one individual who directs the work which seems to be started, 

 continued and finished through a consensus of public opinion. It 

 is only of late that observation nests have been devised so that 

 we are able to verify for ourselves the wonderful tales which the 

 earlier naturalists have written for us concerning the lives of 

 these small socialists. 



