HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



PART FIRST 



I 

 ABOUT HOME. MARCH TO JUNE 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATION 



1. The warm spring sun has melted the snow, and 

 tiny blades of young grass begin to appear among the dead 

 stalks of last year. In sheltered, sunny places we notice 

 spiders and insects crawling about, evidently taking their 

 first spring airing. If you have a flower garden, your 

 tulips will soon be in bloom and your shrubs will have 

 leaves and flowers. Wild as well as cultivated fruit trees 

 will soon be covered with white or rose-colored flowers, 

 filling the air with fragrance and attracting thousands of 

 buzzing bees. If we observe carefully, we shall find beetles 

 and caterpillars feeding on the tender foliage, as soon as 

 the buds have opened. But several kinds of birds have 

 returned to us from the South, and they will probably pre- 

 vent most of the insects from becoming too numerous. 



2. The Common Tulip. Tulipa Gesneriana. 

 MATERIAL : Tulips with bulbs ; several sprouting onions. 



This plant grows from six to eight inches high. Each 

 stem carries only one flower and rises from an onion-like 



Observations. Catkins of poplars, flowers of willows, eggs of teiit- 

 caterpillars. 



B 1 



