297 



sections of vegetable tissues which are not immediately compre- 

 hended by laymen, that by leaving the camera lucida in place I 

 could point out to the observer the parts referred to in my 

 attempted explanations. I fixed a paper upon the table top 

 under the camera, hastily drew faint outlines of the objects in 

 the field, and then, as my visitor gazed through the microscope, 

 pointed with the pencil to these outlines, or, as the observer 

 believed, to the various details within the scope of his vision. 



When microscopes are to be used for demonstrating to classes 

 illustrative material after lectures, or for brief examination of special 

 preparations, by students in rotation during periods of general 

 laboratory practice, the same method may advantageously be 

 adopted. A not uncommon custom is to supply each microscope 

 with a rough drawing, or with an illustration in an open book or 

 on a chart. In the present method each microscope is provided 

 with a camera lucida. Instrument, preparation, and paper are 

 secured in place. The instructor adjusts things, and upon the 

 paper in their proper positions writes the names of parts to which 

 attention is to be directed, or places marks of indication, which 

 afterwards to the students appear as labels in the preparations 

 themselves. 



State Normal School, 

 Trenton, New Jersey. 



The Outlook for November 28 prints the following appeal from 

 one of its readers : " Would it perhaps be timely to ask your 

 readers if, after the terrible forest fires of this summer and autumn, 

 it might not be considerate to refrain from using trees for Christ- 

 mas decorations ? Thousands of evergreens must be sacrificed 

 annually to meet the demands of the Christmas trade. Is it a 

 custom worthy of being perpetuated ?" 



The Boston Herald states that one New Hampshire neighbor- 

 hood is to furnish about 10,000 Christmas trees for Philadelphia. 

 Several acres of young woodland is to be stripped of fine, young 

 spruce trees, for which the owners will receive no more than six 

 or seven cents each. The Herald's correspondent further says 

 the "trees are sacrificed for only a few hours' enjoyment, and 



