JUMPING INSECTS ON THE SNOW.

MONTEREY, MASS. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I noticed in the footprints and depressions in the snow little black specks that I thought were soot. But when I looked closer I saw that they were alive and squirming, and every little while one would jump. When I went on a little farther I could have gathered them up by the cupful at a time. It looked as if some one had taken a pailful of soot and thrown it out on the snow. The horse-tracks were full of them, and even the little rabbit-tracks were full. The snow just there was sprinkled with them, but down in the woods there were none. The weather had been very cold, but yesterday it was mild and the snow was thawing. We looked at the little things under the microscope, and the drawing I have made is as nearly like one of them as I can make it. We have never seen anything of the kind before, and would like to know if you can tell us what they are and how they jump. We could not find out. They seem to shrivel quickly when brought

into the house. This is our first winter in the Berkshires, but the neighbors say that these little insects are common here, and they say that they came down with the snow; but that cannot be.

Sincerely yours,

GREAT BARRINGTON, MASS.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I noticed something last spring which interested me very much. In an old cherry stump in our yard there have been two little bluebirds. I have watched them flying back and forth to the stump, in which there is an old woodpecker hole. They seem to take turns in going in, for one bird goes in and the other one waits till it comes out, then he goes in. I have taken a great deal

LUCIA K. HICKS (age 10). These insects are evidently one of the many kinds of the family Thysanura, or "snow-fleas." They are quite common in the northern part of the country. They live under dead leaves, in the chinks of bark, or down in the moss, and upon a warm day, especially in the spring, they come upon the snow. They are also often seen on the surface of the pools of water. They have no wings, but can run fast or jump very far. They have a springing apparatus on the under side of the body. Of one kind Professor Comstock says, speaking of this apparatus for springing: "This, when suddenly straightened, throws the insect high in the air and several feet away. This action is like a springboard jump, only these little fellows always carry their spring-boards with them, and have thus won the name of springtails." The right-hand figure of the accompanying illustration is a picture of the form sketched by the writer of this letter.

TWO OF THE MANY FORMS OF SNOWFLEAS KNOWN AS SPRINGTAILS.

of interest in them, and I think all the young folks would be interested if they could see them. Yours truly,

ETHEL E. SELKIRK (age 132).

The coming of the bluebirds in March always creates or increases a desire to be out of doors. Even if there is a little snow here and there, on sunny days they musically tell us that tru-al-ly, tru-al-ly, tru-al-ly spring is here.

WATCHING THE LITTLE PLANTS GROW.

A LITTLE over a year ago, several boys and girls in a school-room showed me their work in germinating seeds. By the method so familiar to all our young folks, they had put various kinds of seeds between layers of wet cotton, or in sawdust and in soil, and then set the dish, or tumbler, or flower-pot containing the little farm in a warm place.

"I wish you could have been here a day or two ago; they don't look so well now," apologetically explained one of the young folks. "They were very interesting and pretty when the little plants started to grow, but they soon died down." (And, indeed, I must admit that the tangled mass of little plants, some partly dead, some dried on the edge of the dish, some in places too wet, or decaying or moldy,-and some of the dishes even emitting a bad odor from the decay,-did not prove very attractive.)

"The little plants died as soon as they had used up all the food stored in the seeds," was explained. And then it occurred to me that what these young folks and all others need in order most conveniently to see the seeds sprout,

and the little plants grow, and continue to grow, is some method of feeding, so that the little plants will grow even if not in soil -will grow anymoist, warm, and soil we can't see in the water or nothing to eat. get the chemical

well fed. In the the entire plant; cotton they have If we could only food from the soil

This offer still holds good, for Nature and Science will keep a supply. Please show this offer to your teacher or parent. Three prizes for best observations and descriptions were offered. In accord with these offers, about twenty thousand tablets were mailed to young folks in all parts of the country. Many excellent observations were received, and the award of prizes was made on page 81 of Nature and Science for November, 1901.

Extracts from a few of these letters, and the accompanying illustrations, show a few of the methods for convenient observation and study, or for novelty and amusement.

All

and put it but right here an idea came to me. In the botanical laboratories of the universities the professors and students use a mixture of chemicals dissolved in water. One such mixture, devised by Professor Sachs, of Germany, is called the Sachs solution." But then a difficulty presented itself. It will be inconvenient for our young folks to go to a chemist and get all of these mixed in as small quantity as each will desire. And then another idea. Have a large quantity put into tablets so that two will be just right for a pint of water. Then it will be like diluting condensed milk and feeding the baby plants, and continuing till they are full grown-ups.

So, to encourage the young people in feeding and continuing the life of the young plants from the germinating seeds, I explained about

LUXURIANT GROWTH ON A PIECE OF TUFA.

ANNSIDE, WESTMORELAND, ENGLAND. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I am sending you a drawing of a nasturtium growing on a piece of tufa. I have noticed a good many things about it, as follows: The first two leaves come in pairs, but the others

lighter in color than the rest of the plant, and does not come to the edge of the leaf, but nearly in the middle. The leaf has nine ribs in it, all of them coming to where the stem joins the leaf, where there is a white spot. Sometimes the stems

sun.

look as though one had taken a pen filled with red ink and made little scratches all the way down on the side which faces the All the leaves face the sun. Some of them are outlined with a black line, the first two or three leaves generally. The roots are like a number of thick, dirty colored threads, not tapering, and all branching off the main stem. The leaves are nearly round, and have a rather peculiar odor which, I think, is refreshing. Your faithful reader,

NASTURTIUMS GROWING ON TUFA.

GERTRUDE CROSLAND (age 15).

NOVEL GROWTH ON TOADSTOOLS.
WORCESTER, MASS.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: After inventing my method, I began to sprout or germinate seeds. I used a member

of the fungi family commonly called a toadstool. It grows in rich soil in moist and shady places, and though

The

some kinds are seen in the fields and pastures, they are short-lived, as they quickly wither under the hot rays of the sun. toadstool which I used was found growing among the bushes in a swampy place, and was about the size of a twenty-five-cent piece. I placed it in a cup of water, and the next morning I was surprised to find that it had absorbed the water and increased to twice its size of the night before. I now filled a small

cup with rich soil, and on top of this soil I placed a layer

of moss, in which I embedded the roots of the toadstool. Then I scattered some grass and clover seed up under the roof, or cap, and on the top of the toadstool. The seeds soon commenced to swell, became green, and four days from the time the seeds were planted they began to burst open and send forth a tiny shoot of grass. Each morning and night I fed the roots with the solution made from

CORN AND BEANS ON MOSQUITO-NETTING TIED OVER A TUMBLER. THE ROOTS PASS THROUGH THE MESHES, SO THAT THE PLANTS FEED ON THE TABLET SOLUTION, WITH WHICH THE TUMBLER IS KEPT FILLED.

tablets. Occasionally I moistened the roots of the toadstool to keep its cap damp, thus making a moist bed in which the seeds could sprout. As the shoots grew, one end pointed toward the moss, and finally rooted in it, while the other end, which bore the seed, grew upward. A short time after I noticed that the little brown jacket which inclosed the seed had split, and it soon fell off, leaving two tiny leaves. The spears, which had been white, now became yellow and later green. The clover seed sprouted rather slowly, but the grass seed flourished and kept increasing in growth until the load became too heavy for the toadstool to bear.

Yours very truly,

DONALD D. SIMONDS (age 15).

In this case it seems probable that the plants may have taken some food from the toadstool itself, but they were not compelled to do so. The grass plants, fed by the solution, would

OATS, CORN, BEANS, LUPINES, AND SQUASH GROWING IN SAWDUST IN A DRIPPING-PAN, AND FED BY THE TABLET SOLUTION.

have grown luxuriantly if they had been on a mesh of fine wire, in shape of the toadstool, instead of on the toadstool itself.

ON EXCELSIOR, AND ON CARDBOARD. WATTITUCK, N. Y. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I planted a number of sweetpeas out of doors, and at the same time I put a few seeds on some excelsior in a saucer and kept them wet. In about a week the little seeds had burst and a tiny shoot had come out. This I later found to be the stalk. In a short time the little root sprang from the opposite side. After I saw the seeds had really begun to grow I put them on cotton in a tumbler containing the tablet solution, and there they stayed for about a month. The roots seemed to grow very quickly, and they went right through the cotton. Leaves came on the stalk, and it became too big for the tumbler. I then moved them into a jar, and put up strings by a western window in my room for the growing tendrils to catch hold of. I removed the cotton when I put them in the jar, in order to see them better, and I do not think it made any difference to them.

I measured the plants to-day. I have now two growing. One measured twenty-four inches from the root

up, and its root was one half as long; while the other was sixteen inches, and its roots, as in the case of the other plant, were about half of its length. Probably others who have started plants can report much better growth than this. I know that sweet-peas need plenty of water and sun, and though these always had the water, I am afraid they have not had nearly as much sun as they might have had.

Then I started some radish seed. I put a circle of stiff paper in a glass of water (on top of the water), the circle exactly fitting the glass, and placed the seeds on that. They germinated, and I removed them, paper and all, into the solution so that the roots went right through little holes that I had punched in the paper.

My sister and I enjoy your department in the ST. NICHOLAS so much. Yours very truly,

VIRGINIA C. CRAVEN (age 13).

ON THE MOSSY LICHEN (USNEA).

LONG BRANCH, WASHINGTON.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I took a piece of the dry, gray, mosslike lichen that hangs from the limbs of trees, and placed it in a pan of water. Then I scattered timothy seed over the surface of the moss. The seeds swelled slowly for about a week, and

BEANS "PLANTED AT DIFFERENT TIMES, BETWEEN TWO STRIPS OF GLASS HELD APART BY A PIECE OF WOOD BETWEEN THE ENDS. AROUND THE BACK STRIP IS WOUND BLACK CLOTH, COVERING A LAYER OF COTTON BATTING ON THE INNER SIDE OF THE STRIP. FED BY THE SOLUTION.

finally burst, and out came the little plants. They looked like one green blade with a little white top. But that soon parted, and the two real blades appeared. In the meantime the roots had twined into the moss fibers.

KATHERINE L. BUELL (age 12).

and how they pressed the shell away. They were white and very tender and had little leaves coming out of them, You could see how, day by day, they got bigger. I kept feeding them with the food, and they were always as fresh as ever. In three days they were three and one half inches high. I then put them in a big glass, because they would fall over in the little tins. Yours very truly,

ERNEST GLOOR (age 10).

[This is the first part of a letter of eleven pages giving careful measurements of stem and leaves day by day. Accompanying the letter were a sketch and box of specimens of the plants at various stages of growth.-ED.]

By this artificial feeding we can thus grow plants to full size, so that even the tiny root fibers are seen at any time. We also find it very entertaining to invent novel methods. So long as the roots can be kept supplied with the food, plants may be grown anywhere, even on top of a rock, from sand, shot, beads, bits of colored glass, etc. All these methods especially attract our attention on account of the novelty, but our young folks should not limit their observations to such methods. Where it is possible, also grow the plants in their natural manner in boxes or pots of soil, and watch those in the garden or field day by day.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I raised some nasturtiums. I put them in the plant food in little tins, and put blotting-paper on the bottom. Some of the roots had just begun to come out. I will tell you how it looked. First you could just see a part of the roots come out,