Michigan Spring and Nature Study

Yes, yes, yes, there is fresh snow this morning, on the ground and still coming down. Blustery wind, too. If, however, one were to exercise the magic power of flight and zoom up to the treetops, one would find plenty of signs of spring. These popple buds burst forth a few days ago. No, I didn’t fly up to the tops of the trees. Shallow-rooted and short-lived, popples (Populus tremuloides, of the family Amentiferae--has catkins) fall over regularly, and the treetop from which I broke this branch was on the ground, handy for picking on a disappointingly cold and grey Easter Sunday. Catkins are such a cheery sight!

Vinson Brown’s book, THE AMATEUR NATURALIST’S HANDBOOK, designed to “make all the outdoors your classroom,” is one I am just itching to share with Spencer. Here’s a nugget of thought to tuck in next to the popple branch: “In the evolution of the plant, scientists tell us that the leaf was once a stem and the petal, sepal, and in fact all the parts of the flower, once leaves. If you will remember this simplicity as you start to learn the names of different plants, you will not be so worried by their seeming complexity, and you will be better able to see the relation of the parts to the whole….” (How do you suppose catkins fit into this picture, Spencer?)

Frequent mention of the studies of famous naturalists is inspiring. Jean Lamarck (his cloud classification and evolutionary theory both rejected by subsequent researchers) is a name familiar in connection with evolution, but I hadn’t realized that he was the first to systematize the study of clouds, making his observations from bed in the city of Paris: lying ill with yellow jaundice, unable to go outdoors into “Nature” for months, he watched clouds through his window. (That story reminded me of the physicist Richard Feynman, conducting experiments with ants on a hospital windowsill while visiting his dying wife. Scientific curiosity never sleeps.) Clouds, in Brown’s view, are an irresistible area of study for the “wise naturalist.” There is no long chapter on clouds, but the subject comes up again and again. “Since cloud study is one of the most fascinating and easily learned of all nature studies, it becomes far more pleasure than work.” All right! I can hardly wait for summer, when sweet mornings and balmy evenings invite me to lie on my back and cloud-watch.

Neither can I pass from famous naturalists without mentioning Asa Gray's student, Liberty Hyde Bailey, our own native son naturalist and horticulturist from the shores of Lake Michigan.

Brown’s chapter on animal study includes directions for making different kinds of live traps and indoor housing for insects, snakes, mammals and so forth, with plenty of cautions about making cages large enough and keeping them clean, and I know that Spencer would not miss a word of this. (One of their family pets in St. Paul is Sammy, a Peruvian Rainbow Boa.) The author cautions that most wild animals will not become pets and that it’s “not a good idea to keep one very long. Keep it long enough to study its actions and its habits and then let it go. It will make you feel better to know that your wild creature is free and active in the woods and fields once more.”

Those are just a few samples from this captivating book, which is generously illustrated with line drawings to make the material come alive.

Our domestic princess, Sarah, had eyes as wide as saucers yesterday evening when she saw a RABBIT! out by David’s studio barn. It may have been the first rabbit she’s ever seen! Sarah lacks serious scientific curiosity and disciplined method. There was no way she was going to sit still for ten minutes to observe that rabbit. Only the leash kept her from giving chase.