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kayquilz · 01-29-2016, 01:01 AM

As the students enter the greenhouse today, it is a warm reprieve from the cold that engulfed them outside. The sun was shining, and Paul was sitting atop a table in front of the greenhouses, his gloves next to him as he waited, calmly, for people to enter.

“Circle up, circle up, everyone!” he called out every few minutes. As the students should be well aware by now, since it was November, they meditated before starting every lesson.

Four different types of trees were huddled in the back of the greenhouse, but they were young, and most had little to no leaves budding. This was not a lesson that some would find interesting, but Paul thought it would be fun nonetheless! Granted, anything to do with plants was fun to Paul. There was also a few tools in the front on the table Paul was sitting on...just in case students couldn’t handle the magic today...however, one of the things they would be doing would REQUIRE magic so...hmm. He hoped this wouldn’t be an issue.

There was a basket of flowers on the table, too, for people to give to others, like he had done last term. And he HOPED they remembered the rule! It was such a lovely one, after all.

“Start clearing your mind noooooooow!” he smiled giddily and waved his wand in a leisurely way, making bubbles come out of the end of it...right into the faces of the students as they walked in.

Who didn’t like bubbles?

OOC: Hi, guys, welcome to class (whooh!). Just a couple things to keep in mind. This is not the first Herbology lesson of term, all right? It’s like..late November IC right now. And yes, Paul starts all of his lessons with meditations. <3 Secondly, the flower rule is still in play. If you are not familiar with it:

*There is a basket of flowers Paul keeps in the front; feel free to have your character come up at any time to grab one, and give it to another student if someone particularly touches them emotionally or anything.
Familiarize yourself with not only our rules but also SS site rules, all of which apply.

I will not be moving on for another 18 or so hours!

SPOILER!!: Lesson Progression

DaniDiNardo · 01-30-2016, 03:46 PM

The Professor was singing to him...rather off key too. Did he....did he want him to sing back? Was...that...a thing now...because he'd checked the rules a few times and now he was hoping they hadn't gone back to the madness of last year. Please no. Without his quill, his heart wouldn't be able to take all the changes. It was usually there to pick up on everything while he paid attention to class. They were a team!

Just think how interesting the Professor would have become--more so than usual--if his quill had recorded him singing his greeting. At no point, however, did Blaise think this meant the man was signalling him to tell him good morning. Nope, that went right over his head, sorry.

The boy DID give him his widest, dimpled smile in response, hoping to divert his attention because awks, the man was serenading him. He didn't mind being a favourite but Professor please, others were watching.

As the lesson began, the little boy found he rather liked where this was going. Mutant plants (because that's what Dot said and she was smart). Could he make ANYTHING??? Was that what the trees in the back were for?? He didn't know much about grafting himself and chose to keep silent while he listened to the others but then the Professor said they were making their OWN and suddenly this class got a whole lot better.

He wondered how they would do it. Were there instruments under the table they would be asked to reach for once the activity started?? Oh man how cool was this???

Also, why was the Professor asking so many questions? Blaise wasn't familiar with half the terms the man had brought up, though whether it was because he'd only hit his second year or because he didn't spend NEARLY as much time reading his Herbology texts ~~because he had to do massive Charms and Transfig reading to make up for skipping all the classes~~, the boy still wasn't sure.

Annnnnnyway, he needed to go grab his trees!!

Weasley174 · 01-30-2016, 04:03 PM

Angel was looking down at the floor, when the Professor came and just leaned casually on her desk and started speaking and now she was wishing that she hadn't said that it was awkward because the evil genies of a Professor had given her a hard choice loose 5 points or go to the front of the class and do her alphabet backwards.

Angel was trying to decide what punishment she wanted to do, did she just lose the points or did she try the alphabet backwards, It was such a hard choice because she didn't like letter the Professor down or her house down.

Okay alphabet it was.

Getting up Angel went over to the front of the class and stood up, clearing her front she said the alphabet backwards,

"Z, Y, X,
W, V,
U, T, S, R, Q, P, O, N,
M, L, K,
J, I, H,
G, F, E, D,
C, B, A;"

Angel now had recited out the alphabet backwards and she hoped that it was good enough, because if not she wasn't doing it again, she then grabbed two plants and went to her desk, was there a way of making her small because she was so embarrassed now.

Schroyers · 01-30-2016, 04:04 PM

Alice saw the smile and did actually feel better about not knowing the answers. Then Professor Paul was all on about a bunch of plant-y stuff.. Luckily Alice understood the basics of it. The one tree helped the air and the other one helped the soil..

She got up and went to go look at the trees, she made sure to grab the Silk one cause silk was pretty, The Gryffindor liked pretty things. Her second choice was Mahogany cause it had a funny name. This would be an interesting tree.

Ashwinder · 01-30-2016, 04:05 PM

He put the flower behind his ear! Julia giggled. She’d sort of thought he’d tuck it in his lapel or something, but behind the ear made Jay look like a part of nature, and not just using it as an aesthetic afterthought (aesthetic being her word-a-day word from yesterday, but she supposed she could still use it today, since today’s word—substratum—didn’t seem likely to get much use).

When Professor Myers started talking she stared at him, willing herself to absorb everything he was saying. She thought she got most of it, or some of it, or at least knew which trees were which, but the good news was that she had Jay and he was clearly already an expert on this.

An expert who already knew the exact kind of grafting they were doing today. Julia gave him another little shoulder bump, ”You’re so smart.”

Look at him, being all smart. Why wasn’t he in her house instead of Daaaavid Truebridge? Honestly.

”Let’s do Persian silk for the legume, because it sounds pretty.” She was sure all the trees were pretty, when it came down to it, but while she did like honey she didn’t like the locust part of its name. ”You pick the anti-pollutant.”

DaniDiNardo · 01-30-2016, 04:40 PM

He supposed he should have been thinking about the Professor's questions, the one about why they'd make this tree and where they'd plant it...but see...he was kinda busy deciding which tree he'd make in the first place. The boy could only stretch the resources of his brain so far and right now it was leaning toward the Persian Silk. Just had a nice ring to it--an even nicer ring when you paired it with Mahogany. 'Least that's how he was going to see it.

It was decided then, that would be his hybrid. Blaise grabbed what he needed and headed back to his spot.

You might think that by now with a decision made the boy could fully take into consideration the questions asked of the class but it still was not so. Nah, he was having a better time trying to figure how he was gonna mix these trees. The boy HAD taken a look around for the tools they'd be using on his way back but hadn't really seen anything.

Maybe the Professor had disillusioned them for safe keeping and to avoid distractions.

That seemed smart.

StarShine · 01-30-2016, 06:11 PM

AGGRESSIVE NOTE TAKING WAS HAPPENING.

Katherine took down notes like her life depended on it, and it DID. She almost literally wrote down EVERY single thing the professor said. She could write at light speed and she did just that - but of course, this meant, she wrote down without really thinking and had to take a moment to read while everyone set about carrying out the assignment.

One legume. One anti-pollutant. Answer the question.

She walked to where these materials were, and examined the four offered trees. Persian silk tree didn't have that many uses, so she picked honey locust. Then, she also considered the anti-pollutants. Magohany was more useful, but they'd gone extinct in the past. So she decided to pick dadap one. Besides, it was pretty.

With two trees under her arm, she returned to her seat.

FearlessLeader19 · 01-30-2016, 07:08 PM

Now that she was back at her seat after selecting the plants, Rachel continued to mull over the question. She kept getting distracted because of the fact that her eyes kept looking in Haddie's direction. Because she had to answer the question, she forced her eyes to remain focused on her books before her. She thought and thought of her answer.

Shortly after, she raised her hand. "Nitrogen would help the soil, Professor. It's one of the most beneficial elements for plant growth. The top of the plants, the green parts, need carbon dioxide to make their food through photosynthesis. They in turn release oxygen. So this benefits both the soil and air. These plants have a dual use.''

itsjustjesse · 01-30-2016, 08:18 PM

Mel just blinked and grinned as she saw Angel reciting the alphabet backwards…yep. That was great. Gryffindor did not need to lose any more points now did they?...okay so now she had to grab her anti-pollutant.

This was going to be fun right. Grabbing a mahogany tree she carefully brought it back to her work station. ”this is going to be sooooo nice…yep…it’s mahogany” she grinned and began setting up her work station as best as she could…well, all she did was put the trees there and sit near them. Maaaybe she was even talking to them?

Kolyander · 01-30-2016, 08:51 PM

With both her trees selected Hady was able to once more get comfy in her chair. Taking her quill in hand again Hady went back to quietly taking notes. There really wasn't all that much for her to say this time around for the question that already hadn't been said. So rather then speak she opted for note takong.

Hady did however cast a look at Angel sending her a grin. Cheer up girly things would be okay. Really it could've been much worse like a detention or something.

Ameh · 01-30-2016, 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ashwinder

He put the flower behind his ear! Julia giggled. She’d sort of thought he’d tuck it in his lapel or something, but behind the ear made Jay look like a part of nature, and not just using it as an aesthetic afterthought (aesthetic being her word-a-day word from yesterday, but she supposed she could still use it today, since today’s word—substratum—didn’t seem likely to get much use).

When Professor Myers started talking she stared at him, willing herself to absorb everything he was saying. She thought she got most of it, or some of it, or at least knew which trees were which, but the good news was that she had Jay and he was clearly already an expert on this.

An expert who already knew the exact kind of grafting they were doing today. Julia gave him another little shoulder bump, ”You’re so smart.”

Look at him, being all smart. Why wasn’t he in her house instead of Daaaavid Truebridge? Honestly.

”Let’s do Persian silk for the legume, because it sounds pretty.” She was sure all the trees were pretty, when it came down to it, but while she did like honey she didn’t like the locust part of its name. ”You pick the anti-pollutant.”

It was plant time. Jaemin was extremely excited by this entire thing, and he gently tugged on Julia's arm so she would come to the plants too. His dad had done this a few times and only one of the trees hadn't taken, at least only one that Jaemin had seen, so he was sure that he could do it too!

"We can do all four!" he whispered, bouncing a little. "You can take Persian silk and..." he looked at the four types available, and pointed at one of the Dadap plants, "...the Dadap together, and I can take Honey locust and Mahogany to put together. We can share all four and help each other!"

He nodded, secure in his plan. They would definitely be working together either way because Julia was his favourite Ravenclaw person in the whole wide world and he didn't want her to feel guilty if her plants didn't survive the graft, but the professor had said that they each got two, right? Which meant that if Julia took the two Jaemin didn't get, they'd get to operate on all four.

Very exciting.

Daydreamer11 · 01-30-2016, 10:11 PM

So they were going to do Whip grafting. Cool. Janelle was all in. They were going to make Franken-trees, only without the scary creepiness. She turned to the back of the classroom and looked at her tree choices. After making sure that her notes were up to date, Janelle got up and headed toward the trees. She needed one legume and one anti-pollutant. The question was, which one should she choose. She walked around each one, eyeing them carefully. Janelle was reluctant to choose and didn't want to have to do eeney, meeney, miney, mo. Finally it came down to which one she got the best vibe from.

And the winner was.......the honey locust and the mahogany tree. Janelle didn't know what kind of match they would make, but she assumed that it would be a good one. Otherwise, Professor Myers would not have put them out as an option. Carefully lifting the trees, Janelle took them back to her seat. "Hello my babies. We're going to have some fun today. I hope you're ready." Talking to plants was a good thing, right? At least, Janelle thought it was. If not, too bad because she was going to do it anyway.

Goblinfrog · 01-30-2016, 10:22 PM

Kitty's eyes widened as the Professor talked, horrified at how little she was understanding. She may have been a Ravenclaw, but this was more complicated than anything she had ever studied before.

Shortly after Rachel answered, Kitty raised her hand and gave a similar answer. "Planting that kind of tree would be beneficial for both the soil and the air. It would get rid of pollutants in the air and strengthen the soil. Then that soil could be used for growing more kinds of plants, and the air would be healthier for people and animals to breath. It would be good for everyone."

MunchyBubbles · 01-30-2016, 10:29 PM

Azura managed a small smile as Professor Paul was patted her on the head, she felt a little better. She guessed she didn't have to know everything right? And Herbology wasn't exactly her best subject. That would be charms.

She listened carefully though and she moved out of her seat to grab her trees.

Persian Silk and Mahogany! Yeah, that looked right. She smiled at her choices and then brought them back to her seat and then thought about the questions Professor Paul has asked..

StarShine · 01-30-2016, 10:42 PM

Now that Katherine was at her station, she pondered the question. Well, Jacen and Rachel had already said all that should be said. Nevertheless, she raised her hand.

"Anti-pollutants clean the air, to put it simply," she said, "but some types of trees have different uses as well. They may also initiate wild life, especially by bringing in birds, or even reduce the noise level." Or so said the textbook that she had read before the class. Didn't she deserve five extra points for that?

Ahem.

"As for legumes, well, every living organism is made of proteins as the essential building block. Amino acids come together in different combinations to form these proteins. And these amino acids are made of nitrogen. So every living organism needs nitrogen as the core element of its body. However, the nitrogen in athmosphere is inert - that is, it does not react easily with other - elements, other compunds to form different compounds. Therefore, it needs to be freed form its molecular form. Some prokaryotes - diazotrophs - can convert it to reactive nitrogen and some plants and animals have formed a symbiotic life with these - with them to obtain the nitrogen. And when they die - I mean, these plants, their nitrogen is used by other plants. So they make great fertilisers." She looked around smugly. She was so perfect, wasn't she? Ahem.

"So clearly, the objective is sustainability with the least waste of land possible. Instead of planting two different trees - one for nitrogen fixation and the other for anti-pollutant, we combine them in one tree and kill two birds with one stone."

Had she read and learnt the textbook well? COULD SHE IMPRESS THE PROFESSOR?

Ashwinder · 01-30-2016, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ameh

It was plant time. Jaemin was extremely excited by this entire thing, and he gently tugged on Julia's arm so she would come to the plants too. His dad had done this a few times and only one of the trees hadn't taken, at least only one that Jaemin had seen, so he was sure that he could do it too!

"We can do all four!" he whispered, bouncing a little. "You can take Persian silk and..." he looked at the four types available, and pointed at one of the Dadap plants, "...the Dadap together, and I can take Honey locust and Mahogany to put together. We can share all four and help each other!"

He nodded, secure in his plan. They would definitely be working together either way because Julia was his favourite Ravenclaw person in the whole wide world and he didn't want her to feel guilty if her plants didn't survive the graft, but the professor had said that they each got two, right? Which meant that if Julia took the two Jaemin didn't get, they'd get to operate on all four.

Very exciting.

Well that just sounded like the perfect plan, didn’t it? Julia picked up the exact Dadap sapling Jay pointed to, along with the prettiest-looking Persian silk sapling, and gave both plants a little snuggle, ”Good idea! This is going to be fun! I wonder if we get to plant them after?”

If not, she was totally taking her plant home with her at the end of the year and planting it in her backyard. Merlin knew her house could do with a little anti-pollutanting. Which was totally a word.

Speaking of which, hadn’t the Professor asked them to think about his questions? Well, she’d been thinking, and after setting the two saplings down at her desk… table… workspace… thing, she shoved her hand up and suggested, ”How about planting them in a city? Cities have pollution all over the place.”

Daydreamer11 · 01-30-2016, 10:59 PM

Now that Janelle had selected her trees, she could give some thought to Professor Myers' question. Why would they want to make a combination tree? Why wouldn't they? She raised her hand and tried to put her thoughts into words.

"It's a win win situation. You have two trees for the price of one" Were there any more cliches that Janelle could throw in there? "One tree can help improve the soil and decrease air pollution.......all at the same time. You could get the job done with half as many trees. Maybe it would be best to plant them in cities where the air quality could use some improvement and the soil may not be the best.."

Ameh · 01-30-2016, 11:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ashwinder

Well that just sounded like the perfect plan, didn’t it? Julia picked up the exact Dadap sapling Jay pointed to, along with the prettiest-looking Persian silk sapling, and gave both plants a little snuggle, ”Good idea! This is going to be fun! I wonder if we get to plant them after?”

If not, she was totally taking her plant home with her at the end of the year and planting it in her backyard. Merlin knew her house could do with a little anti-pollutanting. Which was totally a word.

Speaking of which, hadn’t the Professor asked them to think about his questions? Well, she’d been thinking, and after setting the two saplings down at her desk… table… workspace… thing, she shoved her hand up and suggested, ”How about planting them in a city? Cities have pollution all over the place.”

Ohhhhh he so hoped that they would get to plant them in the greenhouses. That would mean that they'd be here forever and ever, and as his Gryffindor friend had made it less terrifying to stay at the school and return next year, that meant he could come see his tree and watch it grow and everything. Jaemin picked up two plants for himself, holding them carefully and hopping back to the station he and Julia had claimed for their own.

"They could be planted around places that aren't really accomodatin' to other plants, to make them better so you can put lots of good green stuff in there." Jaemin gently petted the leaves on his little trees. He would take good care of them, yes he would. They would be GREAT. "Other plants need soil with nitrogen in it, to grow right... If there isn't enough, the plants won't grow well, so you need to make more go into the soil. Legrooms do that."

The hybrid plant would be two-fold! More nitrogen into the soil, and more clean air for the other plants (and people, he supposed) to breaaaaathe. That meant lots and lots and loooooooots of great plants growing and thriving all over the place. Jaemin was so busy considering the idea and how enamoured he was with it that he didn't even notice his mistake in the pronunciation.

WhittyBitty · 01-30-2016, 11:15 PM

Oooh, she had actually remembered something. Go her! Esme made a note to read the textbook more thoroughly in the future, not just focusing on the parts that interested her. She wasn't sure how well THAT would go, however.

Moving on.

Professor Myers was talking about whip grafting and it seemed pretty simple to her, so maybe this lesson wouldn't be much of a problem anyway. At least this was't OWL year because otherwise she might have been worrying about it coming up on the exam. As it was, she just stored things she felt might be relevant into her memory bank for later; note taking helped a lot with that.

With his latest questions in her thoughts, she got up from her seat to select her legume and anti-pollutant. She had already decided on Persian silk because it sounded elegant, and Mahogany because as far as she knew Dadap trees attracted birds.

Esme didn't do birds.

Weasley174 · 01-30-2016, 11:23 PM

Angel was still trying to make the room smaller, as she tried to figure out what to do next. She was still trying to figure out how she had ended up being so late. That was the worst thing about it, she had gotten up extra early to announce her arrival on the scene.

Angel saw Hady smile and gave her a small one back, now though she was just taking notes trying to blend in with all the plants, she just hoped that her sisters wouldn't tease her for this.

WhittyBitty · 01-30-2016, 11:41 PM

There was a girl standing up front reciting the alphabet backwards and it was taking a lot for Esme not to laugh. Professor Myers was certainly creative with his punishments and really it could have been a lot worse for her since she HAD come to class late.

With a Persian silk and Mahogany tree in each hand, she made her way back to her table and carefully set them down. Plants weren't delicate little snowflakes but they still deserved to be handled with care instead of being slammed down on surfaces. This was just one of the ways that you showed respect for nature and she knew that her Head of House would approve.

Speaking of her Head of House... It was time for her to answer the questions that he had asked them. Esme raised her hand. "Like other people are saying, I think that having the two trees together are beneficial because the one helps with the soil and the other helps clean the air. This is one of those two for the price of one deals, and it cuts back on the amount of trees needed to get the job done." Not to say that planting a lot of trees wasn't good because surely it WAS. Very much so. For more reasons than one. She was just saying that it was practical was all.

"As far as where these trees could be planted, I think it makes more sense to put them in places where the soil and air need help. That way both get cleaned up and the world becomes healthier as a result." Just her two cents on the matter.

MunchyBubbles · 01-30-2016, 11:58 PM

Azura was listening to all of the other people's answers.. but she had another idea. Didn't the Professor say that they would be teaming up with muggle studies for a field trip? She had heard that.. right?

And what had they just done in muggle studies? Clean up a terribly dirty inner city lot! Wouldn't these trees, that purify the air and help the soil, work well there?

So she raised her hand and spoke. "I think these trees would work well in cities, perhaps in an inner city lot, much like the one we cleaned up in muggle studies! Wouldn't a place like that benefit the most from a tree like this?" She asked as she looked down at her two trees.

Perhaps she had got it all wrong, but at least she had an answer this time.

littledhampir · 01-31-2016, 01:12 AM

Why did Professor Myers talk so much? At least it was better than the meditation. But only slightly. Olly did try to pay attention. He really did. But it was not very interesting. Who cared that much about trees? Okay, professor Myers did. And Jaemin. He had been right about the whip grafting thing, which was cool.

Olly didn't really understand the concept. He stared blankly at Professor Myers. They were going to cut off the branches of one tree and glue it to the roots of another? No, that didn't make sense. But it had something to do with combining the two things somehow. Olly didn't understand how, that was the problem. He raised his hand. "How exactly do we do that? Do we just...place them next to each other?" That probably would not do anything. But he didn't understand how they could combine two plants.

He also had to actually answer the question Professor Myers asked. "Then one tree could give nitrogen and anti-pollutants." And that would be cool, right?

Hera · 01-31-2016, 01:19 AM

It was a little obvious though? Wasn't it? Why would people make such a tree? Like, a combo of those two types specifically.

Raising his hand to gain Myers' attention, Zeke then supplied his reasoning. "By grafting those types, the environment receives more benefits than if it was just one. So like, the bottom half of the legume provides the nitrogen-fixing properties to the soil, and the top half of the other filters the air of pollutants... ergo, healthier soil, healthier air which helps support for life within the area, whether plant, animal, human or other."

Obviously.

HaRoHeGiNeLu · 01-31-2016, 01:43 AM

Lucy could barely keep up with her note taking, with all Professor Myers was telling them. Eventually, she could barely read her handwriting anymore and just stuck to copying what the chalk decided was important enough to put on the board. It was amazing, really, that the chalk knew what to write. And she figured if she missed anything important, Professor Myers was easy enough to track down and ask questions to. And nice enough, too.

Then he was asking them to pick trees. Lucy hopped off her chair and followed behind the small crowd of other students, thinking more about which trees she wanted to pick than Professor Myers' questions. Honey-locust sounded sort of nice. The honey bit, at least. She knew locusts were bugs though and that they were big and gross, too. And maybe those kind of trees attracted those kinds of bugs so Lucy decided to not get that one. Besides, Persian Silk sounded very nice as well. She picked one of those up first and carefully made her way to put it on her desk before returning for her anti-pollutant tree.

Mahogany or the dada kind that made her giggle a little when she heard it? The dadap red, obviously. Lucy picked one of those up next and scurried back to her seat.

oh its Erik ok · 01-31-2016, 02:59 AM

He did not believe Dante he could tell. Sigh. Now he was getting his mind ready for a fun talk after class. Just great.

Really Professor Paul you could cut back on the talking a little bit. I dont know say half of it and get to the point of what you wanted them to do. It could not hurt. But sadly Dante was asking for a miracle and it would never happen. This was Professor Paul after all. Even thought Dante did know Paul was a former ravenclaw. He still thought of him more as a hufflepuff. So Professor. Dante knew his ravenclaws and well sorry.

Dane got up and went over a picked the Persian Silk because it sounded awesome and sounded like something Dante could wear with a suit or underwear or something. For the anti-pollutant he picked Mahogany.

Dadap sounds dumb.

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