left the galleries she had half promised to compile a list for us of the 
Texan Wild Flowers. 
But not only wild flowers did our new acquaintances find but 
the seeds and seed-pods, rare revelations in beauty and variety of 
form. What more extraordinary than the insect galls? Or more 
curious than the woody fungi? Mushrooms in photographs and 
water colors vied with the actual spore-prints in interest. Grasses 
and sedges and rushes, mounted as if summer breezes still Hngered 
among them, attracted true Nature lovers. Mosses and lichens de- 
lighted many a woodsman and enhghtened many a child. 
One morning a rather rough, middle-aged man stood so long before 
the mosses that one of the hostesses asked tentatively: "Would you 
like a Ust of the exhibits?" He turned and demanded: "Are there 
any trees around Chicago?" "Oh! yes," was the answer, and a map 
of our newly acquired and proudly cherished Forest Preserve was 
displayed. "Naw, I mean timber. I'm in the lumber business and I 
go through the mountains huntin' for good timber. That's where I 
see all this stuff," waving his hand toward the mosses and hchens. 
"What did you get up this show for?" he asked. "Do you Hke it?" 
"Sure." "Well, perhaps that's one reason. Why do you Hke it?" 
"Oh! I don't know," as his gaze wandered from flower to bird, from 
berry to butterfly, "it just makes you feel sort of good." 
One constant source of dehght was the Automatic Stereopticon, 
showing wild flowers in color where they grew, by the stream, beside 
the pool, in the woods and open meadows. As each slide was labeled, 
the children unconsciously read the name as the flower appeared 
before them. Standing spell-bound before these ghmpses into the 
woodland a handsome youth exclaimed, "Is this exhibition going 
to New York?" Somewhat dazed by the audacity of such a thought 
the hostess for the day murmured that she believed not. The boy's 
face fell. " I did so want my mother to see it. She loves wild flowers. " 
The butterflies and moths were always the centre of an admiring 
group, while the collection of Insects loaned by Dr. Hancock with his 
famous pink Katydid, gave the children a thrill that they will not 
forget. 
For the children came by scores to see the Nature Studies and 
asked intelhgent questions and planned intensive searches into Na- 
ture's secrets during the coming summer. 
Mrs. Moffatt's remarkable photographs of spiders and their homes 
was supplemented by a talk illustrated with sUdes one Saturday after- 
noon in Fullerton Hall. 
Mr. Patterson of Dayton, Ohio, donated another Saturday after- 
noon entertainment for the children, in which was included that 
26 
