LESSON II.

THE EARTH’S ELDEST CHILD.

Perhaps you have looked at the books of some of the elder pupils in your school. Did you see one marked “Botany”? Did you see in it pictures of flowers, and parts of flowers? Botany is the study of plants.

These lessons in your Nature Reader are not to teach you botany. They are only to tell you some of the curious things about plants. When you read these lessons, you will like plants, not only because they are so very pretty and useful, but because of the wonders of the plant-world.

I shall tell you some of the secrets of the wonder-world of plants. Then I hope you will wish to find out more of the secrets for yourselves.

I once asked Tom, “What is a plant?”

“A plant!” cried Tom, “oh, a plant is—a potato, a turnip;” and off he went, quite satisfied with his answer.

He was content, because he knew so little. If he had known more, his answer would not have suited him so well.

You will get a peep at the wonders of plant-life from this little story. I said to a class of girls, who had studied botany for a year: “What is a plant? I will give you half an hour to find an answer that will suit you.”

One girl said in a hurry: “A plant is not a living thing!”

“O you silly girl!” cried all the rest. “A plant grows. Only living things can grow. Why do you say ‘a living tree,’ and ‘a dead tree,’ if plants are notliving things? Did you never see a plant dying or dead?”

“A plant,” said another, “is a living thing that does not breathe.”

“Oh, but it does breathe. It breathes air.”

“A plant is a living thing that eats only minerals.”

“Ah! but some plants eat little bugs, and meat.”

“A plant is a living thing that does not move.”

“It does move! Does not the vine climb up the tree, or by the side of the house? Do not some flowers turn each day to follow the path of the sun? Does not the wild ivy run over the ground? Then there is a plant in the desert that moves to find water. It gets loose from the sand. It bends up into a circle or wheel. Then the wind rolls it along, until it reaches a moist place where it can live. There it roots again.”

“A plant is a living thing without blood.”

“Its sap, or juice, is its blood. It serves the plant as blood serves man. The sap is as much the blood of the plant as the white fluid in the jelly-fish, the insect, or the barnacle, is blood for them.[1]All animals do not have thick, red blood.”

“A plant is a thing that does not sleep,” said one girl.

“Yes, but plantsdosleep. We learned that once.”

“A plant is a living thing, without feelings.”

“Some of them seem to have feeling. They move or shrink when you touch them. A star-fish, as he breaks himself up, does not seem to have more feeling than a plant.”

“Let us say,” said one, “that a plant is a live thing, that grows in the soil.”

“But there are plants that grow only in air, or in water, or in other plants. There are plenty of plants that grow in bread, cheese, milk, and preserves.”[2]

Finally they said: “A plant is a living thing, generally rooted in the earth, and growing from a seed, or something like a seed. A plant has no brain, and no nerves.”

Their teacher told them that the great point about a plant is, that the plant eats minerals and turns them into other substances. Animals get most of the mineral food that they eat from the plants, after the plants have made it over.

Now, from what this class said, you have learned some of the curious things about plants. Plants live, breathe, grow, move, eat, drink, and sleep.

More than this, I shall show you how plants serve for clocks. Plants also can tell you about the weather, whether it will be wet or dry.

And the plants have gone into business, and have partners. The birds and insects are the plant’s partners. The plants live, and grow, and go into business, just to make other plants. But the end of the business is, that the world is fed.

Do you now think that you should like to learn about plants? Here are a few facts to begin with.

Plants are so different in size that they are among the largest and the smallest things in the world. The great trees in California are so large that a hundred people can stand upon one stump. They are as tall as the tallest towers in the world. Twenty men on horses can ride into the hollow of one tree. Other very great trees are found in other parts of the world.[3]The largest trees are in Australia and California.

In other places there are also very big trees. In New Jersey I once saw a large, hollow tree, in which a goat lived. He was a big goat. He jumped about and slept inside the tree. When the children called him he came out to draw their cart. In another hollow tree I saw a very nice play-house.

While some plants are so large, others are very small.There is a little pond weed, which, root and all, is not so big as a grain of rice. Other plants are as small as pin heads. Others are so small that you cannot see them without a microscope.

Plants differ as much in age as in size. Some grow and die in a few hours, or a day. Others live only a year. Some trees are said to live three thousand years.

There are plants that have flowers, and plants that never have any flowers. There are plants that grow from the outside in, other plants grow from the inside out.[4]If you like plants, and some day study Botany, you will find out about all these things.

FOOTNOTES:[1]See Nature Reader, No. 2, on these subjects.[2]That which we callmouldupon such substances is a form of vegetable life.[3]The oldest and largest known tree is a chestnut at the foot of Mount Etna. The trunk is 212 feet in girth.[4]Gray’s “How Plants Grow,” pp. 41, 42, will here aid the teacher.

[1]See Nature Reader, No. 2, on these subjects.

[2]That which we callmouldupon such substances is a form of vegetable life.

[3]The oldest and largest known tree is a chestnut at the foot of Mount Etna. The trunk is 212 feet in girth.

[4]Gray’s “How Plants Grow,” pp. 41, 42, will here aid the teacher.

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