one of the prime goals of the sciences of botany is to explain the childish question of why do plants look the way they do? here looking at the old man cactus, we can see fascinating and common features of desert plants. we see that there are, in many cases, small leaves. the stems have become large and swollen and are green. what is going on there is that the plant is trying to operate and live in an environment with very little water of the -- very little water availability. the cacti have reduced or eliminated those leaves and transferred all this -- all the photosynthesis to the green stem to conserve on water. in addition, you see this land has horns and hairs. in many cases, the phones are protective and the hairs are creating a entry layer of air -- a boundary layer of air. that reduces the evaporation potential of water from leaving the plant. you'll see all of these common themes in a plans of the desert so they're able to live in the tough conditions of the desert and thrive. at the u.s. botanic garden, we have a few of these plants left from the original 1842 collection. on

one of the goals of botany is to explain the almost childish question of why plants look the way they do. it is fascinating looking at the desert plants. this is the old man cactus. we can see a couple of fascinating and common features of desert plants. we see there are in many cases no were very few or small leaves. the stems have become large and swollen. they are green. the plant is trying to operate and live in an environment with very little water available. leaves create a large surface area for the plant to lose water through evaporation and transpiration. the cacti have reduced or eliminated the leaves and transferred all of the photosynthesis to the green stem to conserve on water. in addition, you see this particular plant has thorns and hairs. in many cases, the thorns are protective. the hairs are creating a boundary layer of air air flow where the air moves more slowly next to the body of the plant. i also reduces the evaporation potential of the water from leaving the plant. you will see all these common themes in the class of the deserts so they are able to live in the

this is actually of an iowa state university botany class from 1890. we see more women than ever before with access and opportunity to go to college. and women are increasingly playing sports. this is one of my favorite pictures. on riverside drive, new york city. it does not look like this today. we see women participating in sports in school settings and outside, women are working more than ever before. you think about it. long working hours, increased opportunities for your leisure time, riding in an automobile, going to the movies, right? playing sports? you have less time to so -- to sew. always have the skills to create a well fitted, fashionably acceptable garment? no. no. enter the department store. the stores become the center for display and entertainment. william leach, a historian talks about these palaces of consumption, allowing women to see and be seen and fashionable clothing. thus changing shopping rituals forever. advertisements in retail shop displays. see this window? this does not happen too much today, does it? people gawking in t

botany for you. >> i think we're done here. kennedy: very good. >> nice work.ennedy: jeb bush and scott walker are polling well in iowa and new hampshire, nick, is this good news for people who like small government or cause for alarm? >> you know it's always any politician is running for president is cause for alarm, they have a history of increasing spending, increasing regulation and stupid interventions, jeb bush has a mixed record as governor of florida which seems like a couple of thousand years ago. he's very good on immigration, he has in the past favored a more open border and a more welcome attitude towards immigrants. that's a good thing. he's good on education policy. he believes in school choice and letting parents and students decide in letting markets rise up to meet the demands and the various needs of different students. that's all good. scott walker has been good in staring down collective bargaining agreements bankrupt in wisconsin. each is increased spending on their watch. neither is remotely libertarian when it comes to social issues, and

minnesota native who studied botany when he first came to high and began working with merwin 11 yearss job is managing, not employing. some landscapes are designed and in a particular order and meant to be kept that way. but here it's more organic things the way we grow, we work with it. >> brown: that means pruning branches that ends up on biopiles that serve as mulch and clearing areas of larger trees like these mango trees to open up space and sunlight for the pops which respond in a hurry. >> the palm started growing a massive amount of new roots. >> brown: i could see they're new. >> here's the older one and much darker. all the way down into the soil so it could support its new growth. >> brown: wow, that's amazing. continues to be an amazement to william merwin who still writes and works and walks through his garden with paula even after illnesses have left him nearly blind and certainly slow. >> that's so strange too you know. how can you describe it because part of you feelshj that you're still that child who was around when you were three or four years old. >> you still feel

cats, dogs, plants botany. you can't live without things like that around you. other people, i don't need dogs, i don't need cats, they're a hassle. they don't have that. t.r. was again an exaggerated case of needing other an mays s a-- animals around him. at any given time he had 20, 30 pets. even more if you include ones of his children. in the white house when he was president, he had a badger named josiah, a baby badger he would feed. a colonial animal, he raced it when he was young, picked it up in kansas, it would go attack somebody if it didn't know you. there are pictures of the roosevelt children holding the badger, you know. but when the -- somebody he didn't like it would go and bite them. they had to get it out of the white house and it ended up living in saggimore hill, it's buried in the saggi more hill property josiah the badger. the emperor of ethiopia gave him a hyena. he had a horse algonquin that would ride the white house elevator. it used to be called the executive mansion. theodore roosevelt is the one that names it the white house. he had