ful. For a scientific study of the insect, to gain a 

 knowledge of the insect structure and plan, the butter- 

 fly, with its peculiarly modified parts, was not nearly so 

 good as the grasshopper. But the children were 

 attracted by the beauty and the bright colors and cared 

 little about the structure. To my mind, with a training 

 which tended to make me consider even the butterfly 

 as a wonderful structure, but only a structure, a subject 

 for dissection and microscopic examination, this was 

 disappointing and at first inexplicable. The children 

 listened with interest to the story of the life history of 

 the butterfly, of its development from egg to adult. 

 When some milkweed caterpillars were brought in and 

 they saw them feeding, the interest became greater. 

 When a few fortunate ones saw the caterpillar trans- 

 form to the chrysalis, and the chrysalis develop into 

 the adult butterfly, they became wild with enthusiasm 

 and scoured the country for caterpillars. 



When some pupils, better naturalists than their 

 teachers, brought living crickets into the school, teach- 

 ers and pupils watched them with the greatest interest, 

 and the pupil who discovered how the cricket chirped 

 was a Columbus. They gathered about even the 

 despised grasshopper and watched his eating and 

 walking and jumping with an attention which they had 

 never given to his structure. Then the structure 

 became interesting and intelligible. 



The experience with plants was very similar. The 

 seed became much more interesting after the children 

 had discovered the life in it, had seen it develop and 

 had watched the formation of root, stem, and leaves, 

 and the absorption of the food material. Then the 



