It is very interesting to sow various kinds of seeds in the indoor garden, such as canary-seed, cress, or linseed. For this purpose clay shapes can be purchased at a florist’s shop. These are sometimes made in the form of a man’s head, or a pig, and are very quaint-looking. The idea is to sow the seeds on the roughened part, and in this way, when the litle plants are grown, to give the object the appearance of having long, upright green hair.
I had no idea that chia pets were popular at the turn of the 20th century.
I found this while I was browsing through one of the 19 volumes of The Book of Knowledge that I purchased at the library book sale (missing volume 6). Its English cousin ([The Children's Encyclopædia][]) was extremely popular, and I have little doubt that the North American version was any less so.
(”North American” because there is quite a lot of Canadian content, even though it was published by Grolier’s New York).
I am debating with myself about clearing this edition for Project Gutenberg. On the one hand, it apparently really was quite influential, and it is organized non-standard way (not alphabetic). And it is beautifully illustrated. On the other hand, it’s 20 volumes — but I have only 19. And it is profusely illustrated, some photographic, some surrounding the text on each page.