212 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 



and trampling and fires, the wild things again take possession 

 of the banks and dells and ledges. It is at once a better 

 woodlot and a wild flower reservation, and serves both use 

 and beauty. Happily, the day is passing, when to help 

 fill the paunch of some cattle-beast will be considered the 

 chief end of every green thing growing wild on the farm. 



Study 29. Wild Spring Flowers of the Farm 



The program of the work for this study will consist of a 

 visit to some native bit of woodland where the wild life has 

 not been exterminated, and of an examination of the wild 

 flowers, one by one, observing where they grow and what 

 manner of life they lead. 



The record of this study may consist of: 



i. A map of a small woodland glade, with indications 

 thereon of the distribution of the common kinds of wild 

 flowers in relation to slope, moisture, shade and forest cover. 



2. A table of all the wild flowers found, prepared with 

 some such column headings as the following: 



Name (ask instructor if you do not know it). • 



Stem (erect, trailing, creeping, underground, simple, 

 branched, leafy, naked, etc.). 



Flower (color, odor, form, size, etc.). 



Flower-cluster (diagram). 



Foliage (leaf -form, color, texture, etc.). 



Situation (wet or dry, in sun or in shade). 



Social habit (Solitary, commingling, cover-foi-ming, etc.). 



Remarks. 



" 'That little patch,' said a successful flower-grower to me the other 

 day, pointing to a bed of some rare daffodils about four feet by five, 'is 

 worth fifty pounds.' I tried to look duly impressed: but I bethought 

 me of a certain streamlet thickly, but not too thickly, edged with king- 

 cups, which, if human delight were the measure of value, must have 

 been worth fully fifty millions." — Hubert P. Bland. 



