Appendix 373 
most of our cultivated garden plants belong; all may be studied in the 
garden. 
Certain animals may also be studied, with their relations to each other 
and to the plants grown in the garden. The Amoebae are some of the 
lowest forms of animal life and are found in the soil. They devour in 
great numbers the little beneficial Bacteria in the soil. The Earthworm 
is familiar to all, and does so much good in making burrows, allowing the 
water to pass away from heavy soils, and also in crushing the particles of 
soil which it swallows with its food, making it finer and more easily soluble 
for the use of plants. Earthworms, however, are not desirable in flower 
pots, as their burrows allow the water to pass too quickly and prevent the 
soil getting thoroughly moistened. The Millipedes live more or less on 
decaying matter, but do harm, if in large numbers, to potatoes and plant 
roots. Some insects are very useful in pollinating the flowers, whilst others 
are very harmful in the larval stage, destroying the plants (as explained in 
chapter XV). The garden snails and slugs do much damage to our garden 
plants. The frogs and toads in the adult stage assist in keeping down, by 
devouring, numbers of the lower harmful forms of animals in the garden. 
Some birds are useful in so far that they feed on insects and other forms of 
the lower harmful animals, but some are harmful in eating parts of plants, 
fruit, &c. Mice and rats devour seeds and parts of plants. Rabbits devour 
the garden plants very quickly. Squirrels carry off large numbers of the 
various nuts grown in the gardens. 
The weather or climatic conditions can be studied very interestingly 
with relation to the garden, and, where a meteorological station can be 
attached to the school garden, it is of exceptional educational value. The 
direction and velocity of the wind may be carefully noted, and also the 
action of sharp cold winds on plants, as well as hot, dry ones. The 
condition of the atmosphere as to heat; dry- and wet-bulb thermometers, 
maximum and minimum thermometers, may also be used. The pressure 
of the atmosphere, by the aid of the barometer, may also be noted. The 
clouds also may be watched and carefully noted; their forms: cumulus, large 
and fleecy; stratus, streaky; nimbus, when the sky is covered or rainy; &c. 
The sunshine at various seasons of the year, the shadows cast from objects, 
and their effect on plants, &c. The frosty atmosphere and the effect of 
frost on plants, &c., all may be taken in the garden. When all these 
things can be studied in relation to actual living things, and in relation to 
each other, as they can be in the school garden, they have real significance, 
and all become intensely interesting to the children. 
