THE GROWTH OF THE WHEAT. i;i 
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers ; 
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep 
Steady thy laden head across a brook ; 
Or by a cider-press, with patient look, 
Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours'. 
Where are the songs of Spring ? Ay, where are they ? 
Think not of them — thou hast thy music too. 
While barred clouds bloom the soft dying day 
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue ; 
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn 
Among the river-sallows, borne aloft 
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies ; 
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn ; 
Hedge-crickets sing, and now with treble soft 
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft. 
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies. 
John Keats. 
THE GROWTH OF THE WHEAT. 
The not too large number of diagrams available for nature teaching in our 
schools has received an important addition in the series representing the life-history 
of the wheat plant, lately issued by the Royal Agricultural Society. The diagrams, 
eight in number, are careful reproductions of the original drawings by Francis 
Bauer, now in the Department of Botany of the British Museum, and are printed 
in colours. Bauer’s work, although executed eighty years since, has never 
been surpassed, and Mr. Morgan has carried out the reproductions with great suc- 
cess. The cost of the set is ten shillings. 
An explanatory pamphlet has been written by Mr. Carruthers, who has suc- 
ceeded in combining scientific accuracy with simplicity of style in a way which is 
unfortunately rare. This was originally published in the Journal of the Society, 
and was then accompanied by reduced drawings of diagrams, one of which, by the 
kindness of the Society, we here reproduce. It has been re-issued separately for dis- 
tribution, and in this form would have been very useful, even apart from the large 
diagrams, had not the Society, for some inscrutable reason, omitted the reduced 
illustrations from the reprint. We cannot but regret that a body of standing and 
wealth of the Royal Agricultural Society should have thrown away so admirable an 
opportunity of promoting sound teaching among the farmers and others for whose 
benefit it presumably exists. As both letter-press and illustrations were already 
in type, the Society might welt have issued both together as a penny pamphlet, 
which would have been invaluable as a text-book in county schools and technical 
classes. They have, however, chosen to publish the text alone at the cost of three- 
pence, which seems to us exorbitant for ten pages of letterpress. 
We cannot better show the usefulness of the undertaking than by quoting that 
portion of Mr. Carruthers’s pamphlet which relates to the diagram reproduced. 
“ Diagram II. Germination of the Grain. 
( The figures printed in brackets [ ] refer to the corresponding figures on the Diagram itself.) 
“ When wheat is stored, the little plant in the seed remains dormant. It is 
not, however, free from the influence of external conditions. It parts with its 
moisture to the dry air, and this may go on till the plantlet is completely dried up 
and killed. A few years are sufficient to produce this change in a grain of wheat. 
