124 HOW NATURE STUDY SHOULD BE TAUGHT 



working in company collect for the whole swarm. 

 This is the natural method of gathering honey. 

 To understand it fully, the work of a swarm should 

 be actually seen. But to enable us to make a 

 careful study of their actions, it is not really nec- 

 essary for the bees to collect the nectar in the 

 manner ordained by nature. They may be arti- 

 ficially fed. 



So in studying plants, it is well to know at least 

 a few as they grow in the soil, whether in the 

 field, the garden, or a box of earth. But, fortu- 

 nately, it is not necessary that all our investiga- 

 tions should be made in this manner. The method 

 can be adapted to the materials at hand in the 

 country ; indeed, the young people's study of 

 plants should be mostly of those in their natural 

 environments, with a few artificially fed, so as to 

 bring the entire organism under immediate and 

 close inspection. 



The conditions are reversed for the city child. 

 He has few opportunities for access to plants in 

 their native places, limited as he is to the trees 

 and shrubs in the public park, or to those seen on 

 an occasional visit in the country. Here enters 

 the special advantage of artificial culture. 



As has been said, the plant does not want the 



