Outlines of Lessons in Botany, Part I; from Seed to Leaf: For the Use of Teachers, or Mothers Studying with Their Children — John Shaqi
Outlines of Lessons in Botany, Part I; from Seed to Leaf: For the Use of Teachers, or Mothers Studying with Their ChildrenMoore, Jane Newell
Science
Outlines of Lessons in Botany, Part I; from Seed to Leaf: For the Use of Teachers, or Mothers Studying with Their Children
Moore, Jane Newell
Botany -- Juvenile literature
After discussing the subject thoroughly in the class-room, the pupils
should rewrite their papers, and finally answer the following questions,
as a species of review. I have thus spent three recitations on the
Horsechestnut. The work is all so new, and, if properly presented,
so interesting, that a good deal of time is required to exhaust its
possibilities of instruction. If the teacher finds his scholars wearying,
however, he can leave as many of the details as he pleases to be treated
in connection with other branches.
QUESTIONS ON THE HORSECHESTNUT.
How many scales are there in the buds you have examined?
How are they arranged?
How many leaves are there in the buds?
How are they arranged?
Where does the flower-cluster come in the bud?
Do all the buds contain flower-clusters?
What is the use of the wool and the gum?
Where do the buds come on the stem?
Which are the strongest?
How are the leaves arranged on the stem?
Do the pairs stand directly over each other?
What are the dots on the leaf-scars?
How old is your branch?
How old is each twig?
Which years were the best for growth?
Where were the former flower-clusters?
What happens when a branch is stopped in its growth by flowering?
What effect does this have on the appearance of the tree?
In some parts of the country the Horsechestnut is not so commonly planted
as in New England. In the southern states the Magnolia may be used in its
stead, but it is not nearly so simple an example of the main points to be
observed.[1]
[Footnote 1: Reader in Botany. VII. Trees in Winter.]
MAGNOLIA UMBRELLA.
The bud may be examined by removing the scales with a knife, as in
Horsechestnut, and also by cutting sections. The outer scales enfold the
whole bud, and each succeeding pair cover all within. They are joined,
and it is frequently difficult to tell where the suture is, though it can
generally be traced at the apex of the bud. On the back is a thick
stalk, which is the base of the leaf-stalk. Remove the scales by cutting
carefully through a single pair, opposite the leaf-stalk, and peeling
them off. The scales are modified stipules, instead of leaf-stalks, as in
Horsechestnut. The outer pair are brown and thick, the inner green, and
becoming more delicate and crumpled as we proceed toward the centre of the
bud. The leaves begin with the second or third pair of scales. The first
one or two are imperfect, being small, brown, and dry. The leaves grow
larger towards the centre of the bud. They are covered with short,
silky hairs, and are folded lengthwise, with the inner surface within
(_conduplicate_). In the specimens I have examined I do not see much
difference in size between the buds with flowers and those without. In
every bud examined which contained a flower, there was an axillary bud in
the axil of the last, or next to the last, leaf. This bud is to continue
the interrupted branch in the same way as in Horsechestnut.
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