346 NATURE STUDY. 



Part of Lucy Lar corn's " Flowers of the Fallow 7 ' may be 

 read to the children. It is a little above them, but it will 

 give them a new thought and a great thought. 



FLOWERS OP THE FALLOW. 



(Adapted.) 



61 1 like these plants that you call weeds, 

 Sedge, mallow, mullein, yarrow, 

 That knit their roots and sift their seeds 

 Where any grassy wheel-track leads ^ 



Through country byways narrow. 



They show how Mother Earth loves best 

 To deck her tired-out places ; 

 By flowery lips, in hours of rest, 

 Against hard work she will protest 

 With homely airs and graces. 



Her wildwood soil you may subdue, 

 Tortured by hoe and harrow ; 

 But leave her for a year or two, 

 And see ! she stands and laughs at you 

 With mallow, mullein, yarrow." 



A day or two before the field lesson, ask different 

 children to find, out of doors, answers to these three 

 questions : 



First. Where does the mallow, or the " cheese," grow? 

 Have each child tell where he (emphasize strongly the per- 

 sonal observation) saw it, and how he was sure that the 

 plant he saw was the mallow. 



Second. Find out whether the leaves of the mallow like 

 the sun. Look at the leaves in the morning, on the way 

 fco school. Can they see the sun ? Look again carefully 

 at noon ; and again in the afternoon, on the way home from 

 school. (Sharp eyes will discover that the leaves turn 

 toward the sun, and follow it from morning to night.) 



