VII 



THE WOODS IN AUTUMN. SEPTEMBER 

 AND OCTOBER 



47. Trees in their Autumn Foliage. 



MATERIAL : Leaves and twigs of various trees and shrubs with 

 autumn foliage; bouquets of 'leaves from the scarlet oak, Virginia 

 creeper, sugar maple, sumach, ash, and others may be made very 

 ornamental in the schoolroom. If possible, teacher and pupil should 

 take a walk to the woods and enjoy the beauty of the autumn foliage. 

 Let the children describe an autumn landscape, which they have ob- 

 served. Add the most conspicuously colored leaves to your school 

 herbarium. After this chapter has been studied, different pupils 

 might write up a complete life history and description of different 

 trees, shrubs, or vines. If they can illustrate these with simple draw- 

 ings or paintings, they will be all the more interesting. In most cases 

 the teacher should give carefully prepared outlines to the pupils, who 

 should also have access to the school herbarium. 



The working out of the suggested lesson is left to the teacher. 



48. Some Plants that have No Flowers. 



In early spring we went to the woods for such flowers as 

 Jack-in-the-pulpit, wild ginger, hepatica, rue anemone, and 

 bloodroot. In autumn we find none but very inconspicuous 

 flowers in places where the above-named flowers with a 

 number of others told us that the long, dreary winter 

 had come to an" end. The explanation of this absence of 

 flowers is plain enough. These places are so densely shaded 

 through the whole summer that only shade-loving plants 

 will flourish there. But here again we see that nature has 

 filled every nook and cranny with an abundance of life 



Observations. Study the foliage, fruit, and mode of branching of the 

 pine, the Norway spruce, or some other evergreen. 



