SPRING NATURE STUDY. 557 



Compare the outer two or three pairs of scales (the 

 " overcoat") with the two or three pairs between them. 

 Why so much thicker and harder ? Notice outer and 

 inner surfaces. Why so different ? 



Constantly relate to the life and care of the baby which 

 some of the children may have at home, thus giving to the 

 lilac bud a " human interest." 



Note how much longer, softer, and greener the scales are 

 the farther they are from the outside. Why ? How many 

 pairs of scales before we come to the leaves ? The inner 

 scales are so leaf-like that it is difficult at first to tell 

 which are scales and which are leaves. Scales finally drop 

 off. Leaves do not (until much later in the season). 



In the lilac the scales are simply modified leaves, which 

 Mother Nature has made tough and thick to protect the 

 soft, delicate true leaves within. After once opening, do 

 they ever draw together over the young leaves at night, or 

 when cold, to protect them ? 



When the leaves can care for themselves, and also for the 

 young leaves which keep developing within, the work of 

 the scales is done, and they gradually drop off. Note the 

 mark or scar left by each, and the set or cluster of scars, 

 arranged in a ring about the branch, left by all of the scales 

 of one bud. 



After the bud has developed enough for the children to 

 see that it will form a branch, compare this ring at the 

 base of the bud with the other rings previously observed 

 on the branches, and see if the children cannot work out 

 for themselves the idea that each ring marks the base of a 

 former bud, and the length of branch between successive 

 rings shows the amount formed from the bud of each year. 

 By the number of these rings the age of the branch can be 

 told. 



The leaves in the interior differ from the scales in being 



