UFGBNDS of the POPIvAR. 
177 
and study it at home. The kinds that live in still water 
can be kept alive for a long time in a dish of water that is 
changed occasionally, and if bits of grass, twigs or leaves 
are placed in the dish, many interesting things may be 
learned about its house-building. The illustration above, 
shows how one little boy collected caddis-flies last winter, 
with the help of a dredge made of perforated tin from which 
the water could escape, leaving the queer sticks to be picked 
out and carried home. 
Legends of the Poplar. 
BY SUSY C. FOGG. 
It was supposed, in ancient mythology, that the oracle 
could be heard speaking in the voices of certain trees, and 
divine guidance was often sought from such a source. 
Today is not an age of tree worship, but we practical, un¬ 
imaginative people are yet glad that there are forests to 
control the rise and fall of great rivers, to act as a wind¬ 
break in the cold winters, to temper the heat of summer, 
to enrich the soil, to shelter the birds, to purify the atmos¬ 
phere, and to become objects of beauty in the landscape, 
and familiar landmarks, endeared to us by rich associa¬ 
tions. We are coming to understand these things as our 
psychic faculties are broadened toward a better apprecia¬ 
tion of the setting amid which our lives are placed. 
Poets and painters have revelled in the giant oaks, the 
singing pines and the transparent birches ; and many of 
the pretty legends and superstitions of the far-away time 
still linger in literature, and the trees themselves seem in¬ 
vested with much of the old charm that belonged to the 
supernatural. 
‘ ‘ The poplar that with silver lines his leaf ’ ’ is wrapped 
in mystery and legend, and its quivering leaves and famil- 
