FOR THE USE OF TEACHERS. 



No. 2. 



Leaflet 



On Nature Stqdy. 



Especially Adapted to the Use of Children in Schools 

 IN Rural Districts. 



PREPARED BY THE 



FACULTY OF PURDUE UNIVERSITY. 



THE STUDY OF THE FOLIAGE LEAF. 



By Prof. Stanley Coulter. 



The materials for "nature" study are the nearest and most con- 

 spicuous natural objects. These materials necessarily differ with the 

 locality, with the seasons, even from day to day. It will be found, 

 however, that in almost every locality the greater part of these studies 

 will be connected with plant forms. The reasons for this are very 

 apparent. Plants are living things and life appeals to the child. The 

 material for the studies is convenient and abundant. Plants have a 

 fixed position, allowing the effect of varying conditions to he readily 

 seen and understood. The life cycle is so short that all of its phases 

 may be observed in a single school year. Beyond this it is to be re- 

 membered that plants stand as the visible sign of the agricultural 

 capacity of any region, giving us direct report of the character of its 

 soil and climate; that they are intermediaries between unorganized 

 matter and animal forms, and that they have profound economic im- 

 portance not merely in furnishing food-stuffs, but also in some of their 

 forms, in absolutely conditioning public health. It is, however, be- 

 cause of their abundance and relative ease of preservation in any 

 desired condition, that plant forms must naturally furnish the ma- 

 terial for a large part of nature studies. 



The flowering plants are evidently the most conspicuous plant 

 forms in any region, and of these the foliage leaf is the most conspicu- 

 ous part. From the earliest spring when it begins to unfold its blade 

 of delicate green, until it falls clothed in autumnal brilliance, it is the 



