Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/387

Rh species each, and thirteen orders with each a single representative. Sixteen were not indigenous. Observations in all intensities of light and darkness led to a paper upon the "Sleep of Plants." The honey-locust proved a good subject for observation upon these nyctitropic or sleep movements. Two papers were upon the germination of seeds. In one those of pumpkins and beans were selected, and in the other corn and peas. These seeds were planted by the students in deep dishes and placed in their windows. A careful record of daily observations and measurements was kept, the idea being for the students to learn how to conduct careful experiments. A large area on the blackboard, covered with neat drawings of young plants in all stages of germination, illustrated this work to the other members of the class. The student with "Plants having Two Kinds of Flowers" first worked independent of any guide, and finally closed his studies with a review of Darwin's book upon this subject, a summary of which was presented to the class. Sufficient study had been given to the subject to greatly increase the interest in the book, and the student volunteered the remark that it was exceedingly valuable reading. The "Flora of the Dry Beds of Streams" was exceptional, because the season had been one of extreme drought. Fifty species were found, and three fourths were plants common to low ground. Many species of the remaining one fourth were found elsewhere on gravelly banks. A few were water-plants which continued to survive. Twenty-two orders and thirty-eight genera were represented. Two topics in difficult systematic work were assigned, namely, to one student "The Solidagos," and to another "The Asters." A key was formed for the rapid determination of the local representatives of these two genera. Good herbarium specimens were prepared of the various species and submitted to the class. We have thirteen species of solidagos, and, of the one hundred and fifty asters in the United States, Iowa has twenty-four, fourteen of which are found in the vicinity of the college.

Several of the topics required microscopic work, and the students with these spent extra time in the laboratory. A microscopic study of "Terminal Buds" revealed the whole plan of a year's growth in such buds as those of the horse-chestnut, where flowers in miniature were so numerous that forty could be counted in a single longitudinal section. "Plant-Hairs" was a subject worked almost entirely in the laboratory. A division was first made into those consisting of a single cell and those with more than one. For convenience of further study the subject was again divided into the hairs of flowers, of leaves, of stems, and of roots. The "Seeds of Cruciferous Plants" furnished the pupil subjects for a study into the minute points of classification in the ordinal key of this very natural order, especially as regards accumbent, incumbent.