PLANTS. 49 



The Corticelli Co., Florence, Mass., advertises helps for the 

 objective teaching of the silk-worm. 



Chrysalids collected on milk-weed in September, and cocoons 

 collected on the lilac bushes and orchard trees in the early 

 spring may be pinned up in the school-room. The emergence 

 of the beautiful butterflies and moths will intensely delight 

 the younger pupils. I saw a little girl straighten out the long 

 coiled tongue of a recently-emerged humming-bird moth and 

 rest it in a teaspoon containing some sweetened water. She 

 could scarcely contain her joy, so excited was she with the 

 success of the experiment as she witnessed the liquid 

 disappear through the long sucking tube of the insect. 



Plants. — In the study of plants the most important thing 

 at this stage is the creation and fostering of interest in plant- 

 life. Some persons mistake the impulse to pluck pretty 

 flowers for the interest referred to. " The love of a flower in 

 the heart of a child is the highest thing that Nature Study 

 can hope to develop; no amount of knowledge about flowers 

 can take its place nor compare with it in life value." — Hodge, 



Hast thou named all the birds without a gun ? 



Loved the wood-rose and left it on its stalk ? 



. . . 0, be my friend, and teach me to be thine. 



— Emerson. 



The child who has a real interest in a plant, one might say 

 an affection for it, will hesitate to pluck its flower. Usually 

 the best way to secure this interest is to give the child a 

 sense of proprietorship in a plant, not by presenting him with 

 a full-grown one but with seed or seedling or rooted slip and 

 showing him how to nurse it into vigorous growth. These 

 plants may be kept in pots or planted in the home garden if 

 there be one. If in pots they may be brought to school on 

 stated days and made the subject of discussion and instruction. 

 Is it too much for the teacher to promise to make a tour 



