Botany

A few weeks ago, we began our study of botany. Given the state of the garden, and the beautiful spring that arrived in Savannah last month, the timing is perfect. I've started a new schedule of making every other Wednesday dedicated to botany and history in the morning (after davening/parsha) and music and art in the afternoons. It's so hard to squeeze these in during the week. Having a good chunk of time dedicated periodically to these subjects makes me much less worried that we won't have time for them! (Of course, yesterday was Tuesday, but normally we do this on Wednesday!)

Yesterday, we dissected camellias and identified the sepals/calyx, petals/corolla, stamen (anther/filament), carpels (stigma/style/ovary/ovule), and pollen. Then we took tiny pieces of each part and prepared slides for the microscope. It was so interesting to look at all the different parts up close. I also had some purchased slides of various pollens, spores, and plant parts, so we looked at those too. FUN!

I'm not sure we've ever even used the microscope since we got here (it was Dean's for college/grad school), and I sure hope to make more use of it. So interesting.