VARIATIONS IN TRILLIUM. 
257 
A pupil who can suggest an experiment is pretty sure to 
know what the experiment shows. The knowledge gained is 
definite; if forgotten, it is more easily reasoned out by him or 
the experiment can be readily performed again. Can we say as 
much for the ordinary pupil if deprived of his experiment book? 
A pupil so trained looks past the mechanism to the result; things 
are spoken of in terms of their direct use; this paper disk be¬ 
comes “ something to keep out light,” the bell jar, “ something 
to let in light but not air,” the bent glass tube, “ something to 
carry water,” etc. Home-made apparatus is made and used, for 
the pupil does not ask for a clinostat, but hunts for something 
that will “ keep turning round.” Such a pupil must be more 
critical in accepting the results of others and the methods by 
which they were reached, and more can be gained from books, 
for the pupil of to-day can not afiford to travel as slowly as did 
the race. The experiments demanding technical skill may be 
performed by the teacher at a great saving of time. Above all, 
the experimental work the pupil does do is accomplished in the 
same way in which it was originally done by the scientists we 
would have him emulate; he actually becomes an original in¬ 
vestigator and an independent thinker, and the search for the 
truth because it is the truth (and not because it is the answer) is 
the end kept preeminently before him. 
VARIATIONS IN TRILLIUM. 
By Lester B. Gary. 
Foster Flats are situated a short distance below the Whirlpool 
of Niagara River. They consist of limestone (Niagara and Clin¬ 
ton) debris that has accumulated at the foot of a shallow fall be¬ 
fore the Falls had receded to their present position. The ex¬ 
posure is southeast. 
The broken surface, the rich soil, the abundant moisture, the 
westerly protection of the Gorge wall, are some of the ecological 
factors favorable to the development of a rich flora in which the 
genus Trillium is very prominent. T. grandiHorum is present in 
unwonted profusion. 
