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Page eighteen Leaves of Wesley Heights Leaves of Wesley Heights Published Monthly by W. C. & A. N. MILLER 1119 Seventeenth Street, Washington, D. C. MRS. GEORGE S. CARLL, JR., Editor 3020 45th Street - Telephone CL eveland 5690 MR. ROBERT F. MANNING, Bus. Mgr. 1119 Seventeenth Street - Tel. DE catur 0610 THE opening this fall of the Horace Mann School in Wesley Heights is the most important community event in some time. Modern in every detail, the school will be one of the finest in the District of Columbia, its splendid location, on a large plot, giving it the added advantage of unusual playground facilities. In addition to its excellent equipment, the school it admirably situated from the point of view of proximity to all sections of the community. Its location at the northern edge of the main section of Wesley Heights places it within easy reach of the children who reside in the Spring Valley section of the community, and making it only a few blocks from the farthest point of either section. The children of the community should consider themselves particularly fortunate in having so able a principal as Miss Rosemary McNamara, who was named to the position by the Board of Education earlier in the summer. Miss McNamara is well equipped to administer her new office, and we will have the satisfaction of knowing that no more suitable person could have been selected. She has had the advantage of a splendid education, having been graduated from Wilson Normal College and George Washington University. She also has taken graduate work at the University of Chicago and was an honor graduate with distinction at George Washington. We believe this an opportune time to say a word in regard to the untiring work of the School Committee of the Wesley Heights Parent-Teacher Association. When the need for a new public school became evident in the community, this committee organized for the purpose of working with the Board of Education whenever possible. Several members of the committee made an exhaustive survey of the community and the territory adjacent, compiling a series of charts showing the number of students of an age to attend the school, the exact number residing within the community who would be of an age to attend within two or three years and the potential number of students, based on the number of houses expected to be erected within that same period. This chart was of inestimable value to the Congressional Committee in charge of appropriating funds for the erection of schools, giving them conclusive evidence of the need for a new building in this community. The survey was only a small part of the work carried on by the members of the School Committee and the entire community is grateful to the members for their efforts in behalf of the situation. Many of the members did not have children of an age to attend the new school, their interest having been prompted by civic spirit. The Parent-Teacher Association will hold a house-warming at the school early in October and it is hoped that every member of the community will take that opportunity to visit the school and see the many improvements that have been made in the modern school system. NATURE RAMBLINGS GOLDENROD Goldenrod, which is now at the height of its bloom, over most of the country, is a thing of beauty and therefor justified of itself. However, since Thomas Edison decided to give one species of it a tryout as a possible emergency rubber source, it has received advertising of a kind that has made it attractive to hard-boiled citizens, who think in terms of their pocketbooks. However, despite the press-agenting it has received, goldenrod will still have to earn its way by its appeal to the eye. For Mr. Edison has stressed the fact that he does not expect even the best of his goldenrods to compete with tropical rubber trees under peace-time conditions, and that all he is hoping for is an emergency supply that can be raised domestically. And only one species of goldenrod is involved at that, the one known to botanists as Solidago leavenworthii, native to the North Carolina lowland country. The eighty or so other species, that range pretty well all over the United States, either have too little rubber in them or else have not yet been tried out on Mr. Edison's farm. One thing has long interfered with the proper appreciation of goldenrod by the people in general. That is the wholly erroneous belief that the flower causes a great deal of hay fever. Hay fever is at its height during goldenrod season, it is true, but it is not goldenrod pollen that causes it. Several other weeds, notably two species of ragweed, are in bloom at the same time, and shed great quantities of irritating pollen into the air. But because their flowers are inconspicuous nobody pays much attention to them, and the innocent bright flowers of goldenrod have to take the undeserved blame. [[image]] CATALPA TREES On the warm days of the late spring the grass beneath the catalpa trees is white as with snow - only the snow in this case is made of the scattered fallen flowers. The great clusters of snowy bloom, the huge broad leaves, and the long, green seed-pods that come later, all give this tree something of a tropical aspect, and make it seem a trifle out of place among the soberer elms and oaks and maples. And in a sense it is, too, for though it is a native species, its kin, like the trumpet creeper and the bigonia or cross-vine, are tropical or subtropical in origin. Its long, slender seed-pods, after they ripen and turn brown and dry, are familiar to boys as "Iidian cigars" or "smoking beans"; and indeed the tree often bears one of these names itself. Both the pods and the bark are listed as having medicinal properties, though they are little used. Besides its great beauty as an ornamental, the catalpa has great usefulness as a fence-post producer. That is, if one gets the right kind. There are two principal species of catalpa. One, the hardy catalpa, grows rapidly and yields small timbers that last well and do not split. The other, the soft catalpa, grows even more rapidly, but often splits even while it grows, and rots out easily when set in the ground. It is somewhat difficult to tell the two apart. However, the pods of the hardy catalpa are much the smaller of the two, being seldom either longer or thicker than a lead pencil; whereas those of the soft species are huge affairs, frequently reaching a length of two feet and a thickness as great as a man's little finger. The bark of the hardy catalpa also is a mark, being much thinner than that of the soft. - Reproduced by kind permission of Science Service.
