98 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [10:3— Mar., 1914 



grass mats, between sessions. These mats are handed out 

 for use by classes when the stones are damp and cold. 

 '* The Covert " is an excellent type of educational equip- 

 ment that can be made in any woods. It is very substantial 

 and permanent. It does not disfigure the woods (being hardly 

 discernible from a distance of a few rods in any direction) 

 and it is growing in beauty every year as its trees grow older, 

 its paths become better turfed, and its surrounding plant- 

 ings develop. It was made by a few weeks of labor on the part 

 of two students, and it cost less than ten dollars for materials. 



Gathering places for larger numbers may be made on the 

 same general plan. The author once took a class in natural 

 history out to a small grove and set the members studying 

 the trees and the slopes with a view to locating and arranging 

 therein, with the least possible disturbance to the wild wood, 

 an outdoor auditorium for public addresses, concerts and 

 sylvan plays. The result is a simply arranged natural 

 amphitheater. The artificialities of the plan are such only 

 as are necessary: comfortable seats, conveniently arranged, 

 and a good stage. These are made of cement on ribbed metal 

 lath, plastered on both sides and colored green or gray or 

 brown. The sylvan picture round about is carefully pre- 

 served. The aisles are grass paths. Under the seats are beds 

 of violets. Greensward masks the stage and low evergreens 

 •define front and rear stage entrances. A bank of tall ever- 

 greens furnishes a background at the rear of the stage. All 

 around are trees for shade. A rising turf covered bank at 

 the rear of the seats provides for overflow on great occasions, 

 the limit of capacity being set by a bank of evergreens fronted 

 with thorny barberry. Vines added for grace, and flowering 

 trees and shrubs for color are used to fill surrounding niches. 

 Thick walls of verdure round about exclude outside distrac- 

 tions. Grass paths of ample width, well defined by border 

 plantings, give easy access, and invite pedestrians to keep 

 off the other vegetation. 



No community will long gather in such places without 

 coming to feel an interest in the wild things. By the posses- 

 sion and use of such outdoor places, the public may be 

 educated in the appreciation of nature 



Editor's Note: — This is the concluding section of Professor 

 Needham's forthcoming Natural History of the Farm, and it concludes 

 his present series of articles in the Review. 



