ten little buttresses or ridges is a groove in which a stamen is growing, as we may see by looking into an opening flower; each anther is "headed" toward the pocket which ends the groove. The filament lengthens and shoves the anther into the pocket, and then keeps on growing until it forms a bow-shaped spring, like a sapling with the top bent to the ground. The opening flower is saucerlike, pinkish white, and in form is a five-pointed star. At the bottom of the saucer a ten-pointed star is outlined in crimson; and bowed above this crimson ring are the ten white filaments with their red-brown anthers stuffed cozily into the pockets, one pocket at the center of each lobe, and one half-way between; each pocket is marked with a splash of crimson with spotty edges. From the center of the flower projects the stigma, far from and above the pollen-pockets. Stigma Diagram of flower of laurel. p, pocket; st, stamen. Each laurel flower is thus set with ten spring-traps all awaiting the visit of the unwary moth or bee which, when seeking the nectar at the center of the flower, is sure to touch one or all of these bent filaments. As soon as one is touched, up it springs and slings its pollen hard at the intruder. The pollen is not simply a shower of powder, but is in the form of a sticky string, as if the grains were strung on cobweb silk. When liberating these springs with a pencil point, I have seen the pollen thrown a distance of thirteen inches; thus, if the pollen ammunition does not strike the bee, it may fall upon some open flower in the neighborhood. The anthers spring back after this performance and the filaments curl over each other at the center of the flower below the pink stigma; but after a few hours they straighten out and each empty anther is suspended above its own pocket. The anthers open while in the pocket, each one is slit open at its tip so that it is like the leather pocket of a sling. After the corollas fall, the long stigma still projects from the tip of the ripening ovary, and there it stays, until the capsule is ripe and open. The five-pointed calyx remains as an ornamental cup for the fruit. The capsule opens along five valves, and each section is stuffed with little, almost globular seeds. The mountain laurel grows in woods and shows a preference for rocky mountain sides or sandy soil. Another of the common species is the sheep laurel, which grows in swampy places, especially on hillsides. The flowers of this are smaller and pinker than the mountain laurel, and are set below the leaves on the twig. Another species called the pale, or swamp, laurel, has very small flowers, not more than half an inch in breadth and its leaves have rolled-back edges and are whitish green beneath. This species is found only in cold peat-bogs and swamps LESSON CCVIII THE MOUNTAIN LAUREL Leading thought-The laurel blossom is set with ten springs, and each spring acts as a sling in throwing pollen upon visiting insects, thus making sure that the visitor will carry pollen to other waiting flowers. Method-Have the pupils bring to the schoolroom a branch of laurei which shows blossoms in all stages from the bud. Although this lesson is on the mountain laurel, any of the other species will do as well. Observations-1. How are the laurel leaves set about the blossom clusters to make them beautiful? What is the shape of the laurel leaf? What are its colors above and below? How do the leaves grow with reference to the flowers? Do they grow on last year's or this year's wood? How can you tell the new wood from the old? 2. Take a blossom bud. What is its shape? How many sides to the pyramid-like tip? How many little flaring ridges at the base of the pyramid? Describe the calyx. 3. What is the shape of the flower when open? How many lobes has it? What is its color? Where is it marked with red? 4. In the open blossom, what do you see of the ten ridges, or keels, which you noticed in the bud? How does each one of these grooves end? What does the laurel blossom keep in these ten pockets? Touch one of the ten filaments with a pencil and note what happens. 5. Take a bud scarcely open. Where are the stamens? Can you see the anthers? Take a blossom somewhat more open. Where are the anthers now? From these observations explain how the stamens place their anthers in the pockets. How do the filaments grow into bent springs? 6. Are the anthers open when they are still in the pocket? Look at an anther with a lens and tell how many slits it has. How do they open? Are the pollen grains loose when they are thrown from the anther? How are they fastened together? Does this pollen mass stick to whatever it touches? 7. What is the use to the flower of this arrangement for throwing pollen? What insects set free the stamen-springs? Where is the nectar which the bee or moth is after? Can it get this nectar without setting free the springs? Touch the filaments with a pencil and see how far they will sling the pollen. 8. Describe the pistil in the open flower. Is the stigma near the anthers? Would they be likely to throw their pollen on the stigma of their own flower? Could they throw it on the stigmas of neighboring flowers? 9. How does the fruit of the laurel look? Does the style still cling after the corolla falls? Describe the fruit-capsule. How does it open? How do the seeds look? Are there many of them? IO. Where does the mountain laurel grow? What kind of soil does it like? Do you know any other species of laurel? If so, are they found in the same situations as the mountain laurel? “A childish gladness stays my feet, As through the winter woods I go, A kalmia shining through the snow. I see it, beauteous as it stood Ere autumn's glories paled and fled, I hear its foliage move, like bells On rosaries strung, and listening there, Forget the icy wind that tells Of turfless fields, and forests bare. All gently with th' inclement scene I bless that lovely evergreen As heart in exile hails a friend. Its boughs, by tempest scarcely stirred, And still, 'mid ruin undestroyed, Queen arbor with the fadeless crown, And softens winter's surliest frown.” -From "The Mountain Laurel" THERON BROWN. 1 PART IV EARTH AND SKY THE BROOK "Little brook, sing a song of a leaf that sailed along, Down the golden braided center of your current swift and strong.” -J. W. RILEY. A brook is undoubtedly the most fascinating bit of geography which the child encounters; and yet how few children who happily play in the brookwading, making dams, drawing out the crayfish by his own grip from his lurking place under the log, or watching schools of tiny minnows-ever dream that they are dealing with real geography. The geography lesson on the brook should not be given for the purpose of making work out of play, but to conserve all of the natural interest in the brook, and add to it by revealing other and more interesting facts concerning it. A child who thus studies the brook will master some of the fundamental facts of physical geography, so that ever after he will know and understand all streams, whether they are brooks or rivers. An interesting time to study a brook is after a rain; and May or October give attractive surroundings for the study. However, the work should be continued now and then during the entire year, for each season gives it some new features of interest. Each brook has its own history, which can be revealed only to the eyes of those that follow it from its beginning to where it empties its water into a larger stream or pond. At its source the brook usually is a small stream with narrow banks; not until it receives water from surrounding hills does it gain enough power to cut its bed deeper into the earth, thus making its banks higher. Where it flows with swift current down a hillside, it cuts its bed deeper, because swift-moving water has more power for cutting and carrying away the soil. However, if the hillside happens to be in the woods, the roots of trees or bushes will help to keep the soil from being washed away. Unless there are obstacles, the course of the brook is likely to be more direct in flowing down a hillside than when crossing level fields. The delightful way in which brooks meander crookedly across the level areas is due to the inequalities of the surface, which interfere more with water on a plain than on a hillside, since the gravity which pulls it forever down has less chance to act upon it forcibly in these situations. After a stream has thus started its crooked course, in time of flood the current strikes with more force against the curves, and cutting them deeper, makes the course still more crooked. The places on the banks where the soil is bare and exposed to the force of the current, are the points where the banks are cut most deeply at flood time. But the brook is not simply an object to look at and admire; it is a very busy worker, its chief labor being that of a digger and carrier. When it is not carrying anything-that is, when its waters are perfectly clear-the |