[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE]
Nature Readers.
SEA-SIDE AND WAY-SIDE.
No. 3.
BY
JULIA McNAIR WRIGHT.
“And if ever the way grew long,
And his strength began to fail,
She sang a more beautiful song,
And she told a more wonderful tale.”
LONGFELLOW’S “_Birthday Poem to Agassiz_.”
Illustrated by C. S. King.
BOSTON, U.S.A., D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS. 1894.
COPYRIGHT, 1888,
BY JULIA MCNAIR WRIGHT.
Norwood Press:
J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith.
Boston, Mass., U.S.A.
PREFACE.
In presenting a third volume of the Nature Readers to the children of
our land, and to their parents and teachers, I feel it both a duty and
a delight to thank those who have so cordially and sympathetically
welcomed a new departure in School-Book Literature.
I have not sought to model these Readers upon any pattern previously
set, but to make them the outcome of what I have learned, by
observation, of the receptive and retentive powers of children.
I desired to impart useful and needful knowledge, in a fashion which
should not be burdensome, and which should strongly impress young minds.
I have had no hobby of book-making, nor of style to follow. My one idea
has been to benefit the child, and to that end I have directed my whole
effort.
I sing an old song when I say, that we are a nervous race, and our
children are more intensely nervous than their parents. The antidote
for this nervousness, and its consequent train of disasters, is to be
found in the open air, in healthful out-of-door exercise, in the serene
calm of nature, in the peaceful joys which the investigation of nature
affords us.
If we can open wide the gates of “the fairy-land of science,”--if we
can bring the child near to the heart of nature,--if we can absorb his
hours of leisure, and many of his hours of brain-work, in the study of
nature out of doors, we shall have done much toward making him robust
in body, sound in mind, cheerful of disposition, and useful in the
future.
THE AUTHOR
TO THE BOYS AND GIRLS.
Once more we are going out together by the Sea-side and the Way-side.
We shall now learn more of our Great Mother, the Earth, and of her many
children.
Once I read a tale of a queen, who gave all that she had to her
youngest son, and ordered all his brothers and sisters to be his
servants. I did not think that that was fair.
But something very like this has happened to us in this world. We human
beings are the last and youngest of living things, and yet all the
rest serve us, and are for our use. In this book I shall tell you the
secret of this. I shall tell you of the flowers and trees; they are the
earth’s eldest children. I shall tell you how they have taken insects
and birds for their partners, and have gone into business, to feed the
world.
We shall look at those pretty partners in their work and play.
The birds have some lovely stories to tell us in their songs.
And then, we shall put on some new spectacles, and look into the
brooks, and ponds, and into the rivers and seas, and see the Fin
Family, which feel so safe, hiding deep down in the waters.
And when you have learned a little of the wonderful way in which all
the parts of the world fit together, and work together, I want you to
think how wise and good is the great God who made all.
J. M. N. W.
CONTENTS.
LESSON PAGE
I. THE GREAT MOTHER 1
II. THE EARTH’S ELDEST CHILD 5
III. A LOOK AT A PLANT 10
IV. A YEAR IN A PLANT’S LIFE 17
V. THE GROWTH OF PLANTS 23
VI. THE FOOD OF PLANTS 30
VII. SEEDS AND LEAVES 35
VIII. THE COLOR OF PLANTS 43
IX. THE MOTION OF PLANTS 49
X. PLANTS AND THEIR PARTNERS 56
XI. AIR, WATER, AND SAND PLANTS 66
XII. PLANTS THAT EAT ANIMALS 72
XIII. WEATHER PROPHET PLANTS 79
XIV. PLANT CLOCKS 84
XV. THE SCHOOL CABINET 90
XVI. THE OLD MAN OF THE MEADOW 99
XVII. THE LIFE OF THE OLD MAN OF THE MEADOW 105
XVIII. THE ROBBER COUSIN 110
XIX. THE MERRY COUSINS 117
XX. A QUEER CRICKET 123
XXI. OTHER HOPPERS 127
XXII. A REAL LIVE FAIRY 132
XXIII. THE CHILD OF THE DAY 138
XXIV. LIFE AMONG SNOW AND ROSES 143
XXV. JOSEPH’S COAT 149
XXVI. COUSIN MOTH 154
XXVII. THE CHILD OF THE NIGHT 160
XXVIII. THE BIRD 166
XXIX. BEAKS AND CLAWS 172
XXX. TREE, GROUND, AND WATER BIRDS 178
XXXI. ON THE WING 186
XXXII. NEST BUILDING 193
XXXIII. THE BIRD AT HOME 200
XXXIV. BIRDS OF SONG 207
XXXV. THE OTHER PARTNER 211
XXXVI. A BRIGADE OF BIRDS 217
XXXVII. THE BIRDS IN THE WOODS 223
XXXVIII. THE BIRDS IN THE HOUSE 230
XXXIX. THE LOST BIRDS 235
XL. THE FIN FAMILY 239
XLI. OUTSIDE AND INSIDE 245
XLII. WHERE THEY LIVE 252
XLIII. HOW THEY BEHAVE 257
XLIV. FRY AND SCHOOL 262
XLV. SCALES AND TEETH 267
XLVI. BIG AND LITTLE BROTHERS 274
[Illustration: “NOTHING LEFT HIM.”]
SEA-SIDE AND WAY-SIDE.
LESSON I.
THE GREAT MOTHER.
“What are you doing?” I asked a boy to-day.
“Only digging in the dirt,” he said.
“And what is that in your little cart?”
“Nothing but dirt.”
“And what is this that you call dirt?”
He did not reply. An older boy, who had read more, said: “Dirt is the
top crust of the ball, called the earth, on which we live.”
“Very good. Now my lad, what is dirt worth?”
The boy who was digging said: “Ho! Dirt is worth nothing.”
“Suppose that I could take away from you all that you get from the
earth. What would you have left?”
“Many things,” said the little boy.
“Well,” said the older boy, “we should have no fruit, nor vegetables,
for these come from the ground. We should have no bread. Wheat grows
from the ground. No sugar, for sugar is made of beets and sugar-cane.”
“And,” I said, “you would have no milk, butter, or cheese. For the cows
must eat grass and other plants, from which to make milk.”
“That is so,” said the big boy. “And, since it is so, you may say we
should have no meat. The animals must eat plants, of some kind, or they
could not live and grow.”
The boy who was digging now looked at the dirt with more respect.
“So you would lose all your food. For food is animal or vegetable,
and so comes from the dirt. Let us see about your clothes. You would
lose all cotton and linen clothes. For cotton and flax grow out of the
ground. You would lose all silk, woollen, and leather, clothes. The
silk-worms, sheep, and other animals feed on plants that grow in the
dirt. You must lose your straw hats also. Straw is the stem of a plant.”
“I should have my house,” said the boy who was digging.
“Let us see about that. Your house is made of stone, brick, or wood,
plaster, paint. All these things come from the earth. Bricks are clay,
burned. Wood grew in the ground as trees. Plaster is lime, sand, and
so on; these come from the earth. The paint is made of oil and ground
minerals. We get these minerals from the earth. If I could take from
you all you have from the earth, you would have no house, nor food, nor
clothes. You must go and sit out-of-doors, in a very sad state.”
“At least,” said the boy, “I should have my little iron shovel, and my
little iron cart.”
“No, you would not,” said the big boy. “Iron is dug out of the earth.
You would have no stove, no knives, no such things as pots, and pans,
to cook in! Ha! ha! ha!”
“I have a box full of pennies,” said the small boy, “and dimes, and
gold dollars; I would buy more things.”
“All your money will be gone with the rest of your losses. The
pennies, dimes, dollars, are made of metals. Metals come from rocks
that are found in the earth,” I said. “Also, all the dishes in your
house are made of clay and metal. You would have to lose them. All your
furniture is of wood, metal, and leather, you would have to lose that.
But you would soon starve without food. So it makes little matter what
else you lose.”
“I should sit on the sea-shore, and catch fish to eat!” cried the small
boy.
“You must then catch them without hook, net, or line. But let us begin
on the fish, and take away all that feed on sea plants. Next let us
take away all that feed on fish that have fed on plant-life. Soon you
will be in a sad way for fish to catch.”
“So all that we have comes from the earth?”
“Yes. The earth is a great treasure box, out of which come all things
which we see about us. It is for this reason that we say, ‘Mother
Earth.’ In old times people said the earth was the great mother of all
things. So do not speak with scorn of that dirt, which is ‘the earth’s
top-crust.’ What would you _have_ without it?
“What would you _be_ without it? Your flesh, blood, bones, are built up
of what you eat and drink. If all the things that come out of the earth
were taken from you, you would soon perish.
“Just now you found that you would have no house to live in, and no
clothes to wear. So, soon your mind and soul would have no body-house
to live in; no flesh-clothes to wear. Every part of you, except the
mind and soul part, comes from the earth.
“When we look at the earth that which we first notice is the plant,
or vegetable. By plants we mean the trees, grasses, and other things,
which grow out of the soil. Plants are Mother Earth’s first children.
“Beside the plants which grow in the soil, there are plants which are
called air-plants, because they grow in the air. Also there are plants
which grow in water. These are called water, or aquatic plants.”
We will now have some lessons on plant-life.
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 not living 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 plants _do_ sleep. 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 call _mould_ upon 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.
LESSON III.
A LOOK AT A PLANT.
Plants are divided into two great classes. One class contains all
plants with flowers. The other class contains plants that have no
flowers. The plants with flowers are the ones which you like best. They
are of the most interest to you. Besides this, they are the easiest to
learn about.
[Illustration: A CHILD OF THE GARDEN.]
A piece of moss is a flowerless plant. What you call a “simple bit
of moss,” would be harder to learn about than a whole garden full of
lilies and roses.
The plants with flowers are the most perfect plants. They are also the
most beautiful, and the most useful. A perfect plant has six parts for
you to notice: 1, the root; 2, the stem; 3, leaves; 4, blossoms (the
blossom is made of several parts); 5, a bag or box for seeds; 6, seeds.
Here are all those parts shown in our picture of a pea-vine. You see
our pea-vine has something else. It has little curly things with
which to climb. They are its hands for taking hold of objects. They
are leaves, buds, or twigs, that have changed. They are now tendrils.
They grew slim, and long, and curly, as the plant had need of them for
climbing.
Some plants do not have all these parts. Some have no stems. Have you
not found little plants without stems? The leaves and flowers sit close
upon the earth. Some plants have no leaves.
Sometimes parts of the flower are gone. Instead of a fine flower there
may be only a little scale, with a bunch of small threads lying upon it.
Now let us take a little look at the parts of a perfect plant. We just
want to see the great variety in them. We will learn also of what use
they are to the plant.
Of what use are roots? The root is the plant’s anchor to hold it firm
in its place. The root is the plant’s pantry or cellar, where much
of its food is stored up. The root is the plant’s mouth. Many of the
mouths of the plant are on the ends of the little fibres that grow
from the main part of the root. Get some plant roots and look at the
fringe-like, slender fibres. These little mouths under ground are
eating, eating, eating, all the time. They eat all kinds of minerals
held in water in the earth.
Roots last one, two, or many years. Where the root lasts one year, the
plant is soft and juicy. Where the root lasts over one year, the plant
is often more or less hard and woody.
Roots differ much in shape. Pull up some grass. That has roots like a
bunch of coarse threads. When I was a child I was much pleased to learn
that it was such slim, thread-like roots that held together the earth
of the Holland coast, so the sea could not wash it away.
Get a carrot from the garden or market. What a long wedge-like root it
has. The radish is a slimmer root. The beet has the same general shape,
but is thicker. The turnip is round. The dahlia has rough, knobby roots
of many shapes.
But, in fact, all these thick parts which we call roots are not true
roots. The real true roots are the little fibres with mouths at the
ends. These thick, round, wedge-shaped, or knobby, parts, are stems, or
parts of stems, that grow under ground.
Now and then, if a tree or plant is set in the earth, top down,
the roots will put out leaves and buds. This shows that they are
underground stems, or branches.
“What kind of a root is a potato?” asks Bobby. A potato is not a root.
It is a thick underground stem. The real potato roots are the little
fibres.
“What kind of root is an onion?” says Mary. An onion is not a root,
it is a bud or bulb. The scales are leaves that have grown white and
thick. The real roots of the onion are the fibres that hang in a bunch
under the round part.
Roots are of many colors. They are brown, white, red, yellow, pink,
orange.
Roots of many plants are useful to men for food. They also have stored
up in them the food on which the plant lives.
Now let us look at the plant stem. See this lily stem. It dies down
each year. It is soft and hollow, and full of water. Cut down a rose
stem. That lives a number of years. It is hard and woody.
Some stems have leaves growing upon them, some have none. Some are
smooth, others are jointed. Have you seen the joints or rings on a
corn-stalk?
Some stems are erect, as the trunks of trees. Some stems climb, as that
of the vine; some creep along the ground, as those of the strawberry.
Some stems are round, some square; some are smooth; some are rough.
The color of most stems is green, or brown. Sometimes they are yellow,
or of other colors. The corn stem is pale yellow. It has joints. From
some of these lower joints you will see roots growing out, and reaching
down to fasten in the ground. They act as tent cords; they help hold
the stalk firm in the earth.
The trunk of a great tree is a stem; so is the fine stalk of a violet.
You see how they differ in size. But different kinds of stems have
different names.
Of what use are stems? To the plant the stem is of use, as it holds the
leaves, and flowers, and fruit, up into the air and sun. Also the stem
is made up of the tubes or pipes which carry the sap, and the food it
holds, through all the plant.
Plant stems are very useful to men. The stems of trees give us wood for
fuel, and to build ships and houses, and to make furniture. Some stems
are also good for food. The stems of flax give us linen.
Now let us look at leaves. What can you tell me about leaves? You will
say they are mostly green, but some are of other colors. You will tell
me that some are thick, some are thin. Some have veins like a net, some
have straight veins. Some leaves are smooth, some rough, or downy.
Some leaves are long, like those of the yellow lily; some are round,
like those of the water lily. Some are shaped like hearts, some like
arrows, some like shields. Some have smooth edges, some have edges
pointed or scalloped. Suppose you count and see how many kinds of
leaves you find?
Of what use are leaves? By the leaves the plant breathes. But I shall
tell you more about the use of leaves to the plant some other time.
Leaves are of use to man. They make a lovely shade. Some leaves are
good for food. Out of some leaves cloth, hats, and other useful things,
are made.
Leaves differ much in size. There are big palm leaves, ten feet wide.
Other leaves are as small as a grain of rice.
Most leaves die and drop from the trees in the fall of the year. But
some leaves stay green all winter.
The part of the plant which you like best is the flower. The flower has
the most of the color, and the most of the fragrance of the plant. In
the flower cup is that drop of honey which the insects like.
Let us look at a buttercup flower. First, here is a ring of what you
call five green leaves. They form a cup to hold the flower. Next to
these you find a row of bright yellow leaves. These are the petals.
Inside there is a little bunch of fine fringe. This fringe is of two
kinds. The outside threads are stamens, the middle ones pistils.
The stamens have on them the pollen, or yellow dust, of which you have
heard.[5] At the bottom of the pistil is the little seed case or bag.
This case grows. It holds the seeds. The other parts of the flower fade
and fall. The seed case grows and grows, and the seeds grow in it.
The seed cup, or case, is of many shapes and sizes. I shall tell you
more of the seed and its case some other time.
Flowers differ as much or more than leaves in shape, color, size. They
differ also in smell. Some smell sweet; some smell bad; some have no
smell. Sometimes the flower cup is all in one piece, sometimes it is in
two, three, five, or very many pieces.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] Nature Reader, No. 2, pp. 34, 35; No. 1, pp. 39, 45.
LESSON IV.
A YEAR IN A PLANT’S LIFE.
Now you shall hear the story of a plant’s life. The life-story I shall
tell you is of a plant that lives one year. This story begins with a
seed and ends with a seed.
The story of any plant would be this, only that the story of some
plant-lives would run through many years. During these years they would
ripen many crops of seeds.
Let us take the story of a bean’s life. We choose this because a bean
has a plain and simple story. All its parts are large enough to see.
Any one of you can get beans to help tell the story.
To enjoy this story you should get a bowl, or pot, of earth, and seven
beans. Now first look closely at these beans. They have a thick shining
skin. Break open one bean. It is made in two halves, which have a
little seam around them longwise. On the middle of one side is a dent.
Your mother will tell you that is the _bean’s eye_. This dent goes
through the outer skin.
Now soak your other six beans in water for a few hours. If you soak
them they will sprout sooner when you plant them. Now put one bean in
the middle of the pot, or bowl, of earth, and the other five around the
sides. Do not bury them too deep. Let about half an inch of earth lie
over them. Keep the earth moist. Set the pot in the sun and in fresh,
but not too cold, air.
When you took your beans to plant, did they look just as when you put
them in the water? No. They were swollen with the water, and the skin
was wrinkled. You could see the seam around the bean, and the eye, much
plainer than when the bean was dry.
In a day or two you may dig up one bean from the edge of the pot. Now
you will see a small round thing, shaped a little like your lead-pencil
point, coming out of the eye of the bean.
Take a needle and gently split the bean open. The upper end of this
tiny stem is bent over, and has a little wrinkled knob on it.
In another day you may dig up a second bean. Split it; you will see
quite plainly that the wrinkled knob is a pair of leaves, and the round
object is a stem.
Wait a day or two more and dig up the third bean. The stem is putting
out wee roots. The leaves have come out of the bean and are trying to
get to the top of the earth. The two thick halves of your bean are
held, by little thread-like stems, to the main stalk of the new plant.
The skin that was on the bean is now a small dry husk.
In a few days your fourth bean will be well above ground. You will
notice that the two thick halves of the bean you planted are now
turning green, and look like thick leaves. At first they lay side by
side. The skin was like a little cap over the ends of the two.
Perhaps in that state the bean made you think of a new chick just out
of the shell, with a piece of the shell still on its head. Did you ever
see that? Soon the bit of husk falls away. Then these two parts of the
bean spread from each other. One is on one side the stem, one on the
other.
They look like leaves. We call them “the seed-leaves.” You will see
that as the plant grows, these shrink up. That is because the young
plant is feeding on them. The thick part of the bean is the plant’s
first food.
The bean which you put in the middle of the pot has gone through all
these changes. Its two little wrinkled leaves become greener and
larger. Now they show their deep green color, and are of a heart
shape. They have long stems. Between these stems is a little bud, or
growing-point. It shoots up and puts out more leaves.
By this time the thick seed-leaves are quite shrunk up and dead. Dig up
that fifth bean, the last one on the side of the pot. Can you tell why
the seed-leaves are dead? The plant has eaten up all the food in them.
And now it has a strong root of fibres, and can take its own food from
the soil.
If you look near the roots of trees in the wood or garden, you will, no
doubt, find oaks, cherries, maples, other little trees, in all these
stages of growth.
Your last bean-plant grows fast. It is tall and slim. It needs a stick
to climb on. Notice how the stem winds around the stick. See, the new
leaves are pale and smooth. As they grow, they become darker and have
hairs on them.
Break off a bit of stem and leaf. There is juice in them. That is sap.
It runs all through the plant in little pipes or tubes. It carries in
it the mineral food the root-mouths suck from the earth.
By and by you will see a new thing in among the leaves. It is a bud,
but not a leaf-bud. It is shorter and thicker than the leaf-buds, and
it is twisted. As it grows, its green cover opens, and you see a little
white, red, or purple color.
This is the flower-bud. Slowly the colored petals unroll. If you have
several flowers on your vine, you can take one to pieces, to look at
all the flower parts. The seed-bag at the bottom of the pistil will be
so small that you will not notice it.
As the flowers grow older and seem to fade a little, cut off one more
to look at. Now you see the seed-pod growing at the bottom of the
pistil. The pistil is made of three parts; the seed-bag, the stem or
post, and a little cushion at the top.
Now your pretty bean-flower has faded, and fallen away, dead. But what
is this where the flower was? A little sharp, green thing is here!
Why, it is a tiny bean-pod! Every day it grows larger. You can see the
little beans through the skin of the pod.
By and by the pod has its full growth. It is brown and hard and dry.
It will crack open easily. It cracks all around into two halves. Here
are the beans fastened to the sides of the pod, by little thread-like
stems. Just such beans as you planted in the spring!
All the spring and the summer your bean-plant grew. Now it is done
growing. The cold autumn has come. The seed is ripe.
But what is the matter with your bean-plant? It is turning hard and
brown and dry. It is dead. It will do no good to water it. Its roots
drink no more; they are dead. It was made to grow only from spring to
fall. From seed to seed, that is its story; that is what it was made
for.
Here, folded up in these hard dry beans lie the bean-vines of next
year. These new beans will have, if you plant them, such a life-story
as this that we have been reading.
LESSON V.
THE GROWTH OF PLANTS.
How do plants grow? That is a very great question, but we will try to
find a little part of the answer.
You know when you look at a flower, as a lily, you find in the middle
of it some tall, slender parts which you are told are stamens and a
pistil. The pistil usually stands right in the centre of the flower. It
seems to be the most precious part, and all the other parts take care
of it.
[Illustration: IN SUN AND DEW.]
I knew a boy who told his sister that “they said at school that plants
had little guns.” He thought the word pistil meant something to shoot
with! But if there is any shooting done by plants, it is done by the
stamens, and not by the pistil.
On the top of the stamen is a little box, to hold the pollen, or
flower-dust. You read of that some time ago in the lesson about bees
and ants, in your other Nature Readers.
When the pollen is of full size, or ripe, the little box bursts open,
and out the pollen flies. The growth of the plant begins here, with the
pollen.
A tiny grain of pollen, falling on the top of the pistil, begins to
grow. It puts out little threads like roots. These grow down the stem,
or post, of the pistil into the seed case. There they find the seed
germs, and when the pollen comes to them, the germs begin to grow. They
grow very fast.
It is then that the pretty flowers fade. The work of the blossom is
done when the pollen is ripe, and the seed germs begin to grow.
But while the blossom dies, the seed bag grows larger and larger. As
the seeds ripen, the bag, or case, that holds them becomes brittle. It
will break easily. Often this pod, or seed bag, bursts open when the
seeds are ripe. Then the seeds fly all around.
They fall upon the ground. There with the wind and rain and the slight
change of the top soil, they slowly sink into the dirt. They keep moist
and warm until spring. Then they sprout out as you see the beans do.
Some seeds will die if left to lie all winter in the ground. We say
such seeds are not hardy. They are seeds that are not native to the
place where they grow. Seeds are hardy in their native places.
Now you have seen how the seed germ grows to be a ripe seed. You have
seen how the ripe seed sprouts into a plant. You know that plants grow.
They increase in size. They put out more leaves. They have flowers and
seeds. How is this done? It cannot all be explained, but a little of it
can be.
Look at yourself. You grow. Suppose you did not eat? Would you grow? If
you stop eating you will shrink up, and be thin, and even die. Have you
never heard people say that if children do not have enough to eat, they
will be small and not grow well?
You grow by eating. So does the plant. But mind you, when we speak of
the plant as eating, we mean really _drinking_. The food the plant
takes from the earth must come to it in a liquid form.
You know of some insects which take their food by sucking the juice out
of things.[6] So the plants get their mineral food, held in water. They
suck the water out of the ground, by the wee mouths at the tips of the
root fibres.
You know, when it is very dry the plants droop. People say “it is so
dry that the crops will not grow.” Even the leaves of the trees die and
fall off in a very dry time. They die for lack of food-drink.
You have a stomach where the food that you get is so changed that it
will make for you good blood. The blood feeds and builds up every part
of your body. The plant has no stomach, but its leaves serve it for the
same purpose.
In the leaves the plant food is turned into stuff like the plant. But
how does the food pass into the leaves? See the tall tree! How does the
plant food go from the roots to the top-most leaves? It runs up little
pipes or cells.
Plant stems are made of bundles of these tiny pipes. Do you now fancy
long slim pipes, as long as the stem or trunk of a tree? Dear me, no!
These tubes are very short.
But the bundles of them are laid along, all up the stem. They are laid
end to end. Or you may call it one long tube, with little walls, or
partitions across. How does the sap pass through these walls? It would
be very hard to tell.
What we know is, that it does go through very quickly. Take a flower
with a clear green stem. Put it into a glass of water in which is some
red or blue color. You can watch the rise of the colored water by the
change in the color of the stem.
Take, in your garden or flower-pot, a plant that is dry and drooping.
Pour water on it. Soak the earth about it well. In a very little time
you will see the plant revive. The leaves will look fresh. The flowers
will hold up their drooping heads.
I have seen a plant quite changed in this way, in half an hour. So you
see, in this little time the roots drank the water from the earth. The
water, as sap, ran up all the pipes, through all the partition walls.
The flower was fed in every part.
When the plant is young and tender, it takes in much of its food
through the whole surface or skin. It drinks in air, rain, and dew,
through its skin. But as the plant gets older, and harder, it feeds
more and more by the new roots and young leaves. At last, it takes
almost all its food by the root and new leaves. I shall soon tell you
what leaves eat.
Why then does any plant or tree look so much better for a good
washing? One reason is that the dust is washed off. Then the pores,
or little holes in the skin, are free and open. The plant can breathe
through all its skin.
Do not forget that. Your skin is also full of little pores. They need
to be kept open by plenty of washing.
Let us go back to those little root-mouths. When they drink water, they
get some solid stuff. Every drop of water has a mite of mineral in it.
It is this solid matter that makes plant fibre. It is this that is left
as ashes when you burn a plant, or bit of wood.
The juice of plants is called _sap_. When the root drinks the water
from the earth, it travels up through the pipes, through all the
cell-wells. So it soon reaches the leaves. What do the leaves do with
it?
The leaves, having a wide surface, spread out the sap to the light and
air. The heat of the sun cooks the sap. That is, it sets free, in a
sort of steam, the clear water. The solid parts of the sap are left.
You know that things are made thicker by cooking. Does not the molasses
become thicker when you cook it for candy?
When the sap is made thicker it is like glue. But it is still very thin
glue. Also the light and air and heat change the sap in other ways of
which I cannot now tell you.
But the sap, being changed in the leaf, is now true plant stuff. It
must travel through the plant to build it up.
It is only in the green parts of the plant that the sap is changed to
true plant material. What was at first mineral, held in water and air,
is now vegetable, or plant matter. Now you see why a plant must have
air and light, or it will not grow.
Now that it is fit for plant food, the sap sets out to run through all
the plant. It must go to every part to build all up.
There are not two sets of tubes, one for raw and one for cooked sap.
All must run through the same cells. So you see, the sap will be mixed.
The raw sap going up has some food sap in it. The food sap runs about
with some raw sap mixed with it.
Yet, after all, each kind reaches the right place. All the raw sap is
cooked, all the food sap builds the plant. Here it builds root, there
leaf, there stem, there flower, or seed.
Did you ever notice how fast a plant will grow? Choose out some flower
or weed. Watch it. See how the tiny stem becomes tall and stout. See
how the little leaves grow large and thick. A sunflower is a fine plant
to watch in this way.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] Nature Reader, No. 1, pp. 29, 65.
LESSON VI.
THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
You saw how in the bean a deal of food had been stored up for the young
plant. So in the tuber of the potato, and the seed of corn, food is
stored up. This food is stored up so that the young plant can grow in
the dark, before it gets to air and light. Also it can grow before its
root-mouths are able to drink for it.
The food so stored up is mostly starch. It is much such starch as your
mother uses for the clothes.
Starch so laid up in the plant can turn sweet and change to sugar. The
beet root has much sugar in it. A pea has sugar in it. So has corn. In
the sugar-cane there is so much sugar that the cane tastes very sweet
when you chew it. The sap of one kind of maple tree has much sugar in
it. Did you ever boil down maple sap to sugar?
In some thick plants, like the cactus, much food stuff stays in the
stems. Usually it goes to all parts of the plant. The leaves, as the
thinnest parts, keep the least. In the beet, carrot, potato, and
others, much food is stored in what we call the root. This becomes a
cellar or pantry, full of laid-up food.
As the food goes about the plant to build it, the little pipes or cells
growing larger divide off into other cells. They set up new walls. The
plant becomes larger as its cells increase. We will not try to explain
this further to you. You might think it dull.
Perhaps you would like to know what it is that the plant drinks out of
the soil?
The dirt--as you call the “top-crust” of the earth--is made partly of
mineral matter. Men and animals cannot eat mineral matter. But the sap
carries this to the leaves. It is not in a solid but in a liquid form.
Every leaf is a little kitchen where, with the sun for a fire, the
earthy stuff is cooked and changed into vegetables.[7]
Now they are good food for animals. The minerals carried in grass and
clover are eaten by the ox and the cow, and so are turned into good
beef and milk. The wheat is partly made of mineral substances changed
to plant stuff. Wheat is made into bread. The bread feeds boys and
girls.
So the beef and butter that were grass and, before that earthy matter,
and the wheat that was once partly mineral, turns at last into rosy
flesh and blood for you who read this lesson. Well! Well! There are
many wonders in this world!
If all plants liked and used the same food, our food would be too much
of one kind. But as plants eat many kinds of minerals, through them we
receive material to build all parts of our bodies. We need lime for our
bones. We need sugar. We need salt in our bodies. Plants eat from the
soil lime, salt, chalk, iron, and many other minerals.
Suppose you go into the country. Why, here is corn in this field! Last
year clover was here! You say to the farmer: “Why do you change things
in this way? Why does not your wheat grow where it grew last year?”
“Oh,” says the farmer, “my crops will not grow every year in the same
place. Next year I shall have this cornfield put down in grass for a
while.”
“But why, why, Mr. Farmer? Why not have the grass-field always the
grass-field? Why not have the wheat-field always in wheat?”
“It is because each plant has some chief kind of mineral food that it
needs most. It takes more of that kind out of the ground. After a time
it eats up all of that sort of mineral that is within reach of its
roots in one field. Then the crop must be grown in a new place, out of
which the mineral has not been eaten.
“By and by the sun, rain, frost, acting on the ground, bring up more
of the kind of mineral that was used. In the meantime some other plant
that needs more of something else will grow in that field.
“So, after a time, the wheat, or corn, can be planted in its old field
again. But if crops grow year after year in the same field they will be
sickly for lack of food.
“New, rich earth that has never been tilled, will feed the same crops
many years.”
While we are in the country, let us look around at what the farmer
does. Here he brings cart-loads of stuff from the stables. He scatters
it over his fields. Here he brings barrels of a kind of dust. He puts
that too over the ground.
“O, Mr. Farmer, what are you doing now?”
“I am putting food on the ground for my crops.” The plants have eaten
much of the food from the earth. These things contain more of the same
kind of food.
Men have studied plants until they know what each kind needs to eat.
They put this kind of food on the ground and it is carried to the plant
by means of water.
What are these things that the farmer puts on his field? Bones are
ground into bone dust. Fish are also ground into a powder or dust.
Shells and sea-weeds and lime are scattered over the ground. Dead
horses and other animals buried in what is called a muck heap, until
they are decayed and fall into pieces, are among the material that the
farmer brings to enrich the soil.
Do you not see that all this food would be of no use to the plant were
it not for the green leaves? The green leaves turn the raw sap into
food for plants and men.
The green leaves also take other things from the air and build them up
into plant stuff. Our breath, the smoke from our fires, become food for
plants, and so food for men. I shall tell you of this in another lesson.
Thus you see the green leaves are the stomach of the plant. In them all
the food is made of use.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] This process is not only a cooking by heat, but the rays of light
cause chemical changes which cannot be explained in a book like this.
LESSON VII.
SEEDS AND LEAVES.
[Illustration: TREASURE-BOXES.]
The seed is the egg of the plant. Just as the new chick is in the egg
of the hen, or the new wasp is in the egg of the wasp, the new plant is
in the seed.
Let us look at a hen’s egg. It has a shell. Inside the shell is the
clear white. Inside the white is the yellow ball, or yolk. The shell
keeps the white and yolk safe. The white and yolk of the egg make the
food by which the chick lives and grows, before it is hatched. In the
yolk you may see a tiny spot, which is the germ out of which the young
chick will grow.
The eggs of all birds and insects vary little from this plan. The
flower-seed is also an egg made on this same pattern.
The skin you saw on the bean serves for the shell. There is an inner
skin often, like the silken skin inside the egg-shell. The food stored
up in the seed-leaves serves as the yolk and white of the egg. The tiny
germ between answers to the spot in the yolk, which is the chick germ.
The seeds of flowers differ more than the eggs of birds and insects.
For some seeds have no coats at all. Some have only one. But in this
lesson we speak of seeds as they commonly are. We tell you of seeds as
you are likely to see them. The rarer things you must learn in larger
books.
Let us look at seeds a little. Think how they differ in size. A great
cocoanut is a very huge seed. If you ask your mother to show you her
garden-seeds, you will find some as small as the finest grains of dust.
Seeds vary in color. Did any one ever give you a little round, bright
India bean? It was red as a drop of blood. It had a jet black mark on
one side.
If you look in the grocer’s window, you will see yellow peas and
green ones. You will see beans,--black, white, brown, yellow, purple,
and spotted. Some of the garden-seeds are purple. Some look like the
filings of steel, or silver, or gold.
Seeds vary in shape. You know how acorns and chestnuts look; they are
seeds. Cherry-pits--stones, you call them, they are so hard--are round.
A melon-seed is flat. Some seeds are three-cornered. Some have lines
and dots as if they were carved.
Some seeds have little hooks on them to hold them to the ground so
that they may not blow away. Other seeds use these hooks to catch upon
things, that will carry them from place to place.
Did you ever see a thistle or dandelion seed go sailing through the
air? It looks like a little silver ship, or balloon. It has a fine
little feather on it to keep it up. The reason why thistles and
dandelions grow far and wide is, that their seeds are carried about on
the breeze.
If you live in town, go and look at the seeds in the seed-man’s window.
If you live in the country, suppose you collect all the seeds you can.
Did you ever think in how many ways seeds are kept from harm? What is a
melon, or a pumpkin, but a big seed box?
“Oh!” you say, “melons and pumpkins are good to eat!” So they are,
the better luck for us, that is. But all the plant wants of these big
things, is to hold the precious seed.
An apple is a nice fleshy case to hold the seeds in the core. The
cherry and plum are softer seed bags, which hold hard pits.
Did you ever look at a blackberry? You saw it was made up of little
balls or knobs. Each of these soft, sweet knobs holds a tiny seed. A
strawberry is quite different. The strawberry is a sweet red cone.
Look, it is sprinkled all over with little yellow dots! Each of these
dots is a seed.
I will tell you a little about the “why” of all this, in some other
lesson.
You see the seed is that without which the plant cannot make a new
plant. Without seeds there would soon be no more plants.
The leaves are those parts without which the plant cannot live and
grow. But I think I hear some sharp child say, “How about those plants
that have no leaves?”
In the few plants that have no leaves, the stem may help to serve in
their place. But most of the few plants that have no leaves fasten upon
other plants, and grow upon them. They use the leaves of those other
plants to do their work.
In these simple lessons, I tell you of only common things. I speak of
the things that you can see each day. For the rare things you must go
to larger books.
You know from your last lessons that leaves are the stomach of the
plant. Leaves are also the plant’s lungs.
Plants must breathe. They must breathe in and out, as you do. Also the
plants must get rid of the water which they do not need after they have
taken the food out of it. Much of this water passes out through the
leaves.
You know when you are very warm, you feel a moisture come on your skin.
That was once water in your blood. It creeps out through tiny pores
over all your skin.
The plant skin has such pores. The water goes off through them. When
the plant breathes out this water, then more hurries up through the
cells to take its place. So the sap keeps running up and down all the
time.
Plants not only send out water through the pores of the leaves, but
also a kind of air or gas. If they did not do that, we should soon all
be dead. Can I make that plain to you?
Did you ever hear your mother say, “The air here is bad or close”?
Did you ever see your teacher open a door or a window, to “_air_” the
schoolroom? If you ask why, you will be told “So many people breathing
here make the air bad.”
How does our breathing make the air bad? When our blood runs through
our bodies it takes up little bits of matter that our bodies are done
with. This stuff makes the blood dark and thick. But soon the blood
comes around to our lungs.
Now as we breathe _out_, we send into the air the tiny atoms of this
waste stuff. It is carbonic acid gas. As we breathe _in_, we take from
the fresh air a gas called oxygen. That goes to our lungs, and lo! it
makes the blood fresh and clean, and red once more.
So you can see, that when many people breathe in one room they will use
up all the good clean air. At the same time they will load the air of
the room with the gas they breathe out.
That is why the window is opened. We wish to sweep away the bad air,
and let in good air.
But at this rate, as all men and other animals breathe out carbonic
acid gas, why does not all the air in the world get bad? Why, when they
all use oxygen, do they not use up all the oxygen that is in the world?
Just here the plants come in to help. Carbonic acid gas is bad for men,
it is food to plants. Oxygen is needed by animals, but plants want to
get rid of it. Animals breathe out a form of carbon and breathe in
oxygen. Plants do just the other thing. They breathe out oxygen and
take in carbonic acid gas.
The air, loaded with this, comes to the plant. At once all the little
leaf-mouths are wide open to snatch out of the air the carbonic acid
gas. And, as the plants are very honest little things, they give where
they take away. They take carbon from the air, and breathe into the air
a little oxygen.
Where did they get that? The air they breathe has both carbon and
oxygen in it. So they keep what they want,--that is, carbon,--and send
out the oxygen.
Now it is only the green part of the plant that does this fine work
for us. It is the green parts, chiefly the leaves, that send out good
oxygen for us to breathe. It is the green leaf that snatches from the
air those gases which would hurt us.
It is the green leaf that changes the harmful form of carbon into good
plant stuff, which is fit for our food. How does it do that? Let us
see.
What makes a leaf green? Bobby who crushed a leaf to see, told me “a
leaf was full of green paint.”
Inside the green leaves is a kind of green paste, or jelly. Now it is
this “leaf-green” that does all the work. The “leaf-green” eats up
carbon. The “leaf-green” turns carbon into nice safe plant material. It
is “leaf-green” that sets free good oxygen for us.
“Leaf-green” is a good fairy, living in every little cell in the leaf.
Leaf-green is a fairy which works only in the day-time. Leaf-green
likes the sun. Leaf-green will not work in the dark, but goes to bed
and goes to sleep!