Have you a Nature Hobby? 



Marion D. Weston (Ph.D.) 

 Georgetown, Mass. 



Riding a Nature Hobby is an excellent way to have a good time 

 out of-doors, not the only way of course for skating, swimming, 

 base-ball and your other favorite sports all have their place. As 

 hiking becomes more and more popular people are learning that 

 the tramp with a definite goal of real interest to the hikers is en- 

 joyed much more than the aimless ramble. The greater the 

 number of things we enjoy doing out of doors the better. The 

 boy or girl who is developing an intelligent interest in all phases 

 of out door life is laying up untold stores of health and happiness 

 for future years. If to this well-rounded interest is added an 

 insatiable curiosity to learn all that there is to be known about 

 some small field of Nature we have a game which many find 

 the most interesting they have every played. 



Some members of the Rhode Island Field Naturalists Club 

 have selected Nature Hobbies which may appeal to you if you 

 haven't yet a hobby of your own. Miss Josephine Bishop of 

 the John Howland school writes: 



Studying the Grasses 



"Grass is so common we hardly notice it. Yet — ^have you ever 

 thought how important grass is to our comfort and happiness? 

 Do you realize that flour is made from a grass seed called wheat 

 and the oatmeal we like for breakfast is another grass seed ? Then 

 too, what should we do for milk if there were no meadows full 

 of grass for the cows. Think: how dreary our walks and rides 

 would be without the beautiful greens, reds, browns, yellows and 

 purples of the grasses to brighten the way. 



Some of our Rhode Island grasses are very beautiful and some 

 most insignificant. There is quite a variety of form, size and 

 color in the grass blossoms. One of the most beautiful is the 

 Velvet grass, with its spreading head of red- purple flowers so 

 soft and velvety to touch. One of the strangest looking is the 

 Fox grass of the sand dunes with its blossoms like little sticks 

 fastened to a stem. We have all sizes from the little Poa, the 

 grass of our lawns, with its stem and blossom not two inches 



177 



