Plant Life 491 



The success of these four experiments depends upon the genius of the 

 teacher. The interest in the result should be keen ; every child should 

 feel that every seed planted is a living germ and that it is struggling to 

 grow; every look at the experiments should be like another chapter in a 

 continued story. In the case of young children, I have gone so far as to 

 name the seeds, "Robbie Radish" or "Polly Peppergrass." I did this to 

 focus the attention of the child on the efforts of this living being to grow. 

 After the experiments, the children told the story, personating each seed, 

 thus: "I am Susie Sweet Pea and Johnny Smith planted me in sand. I 

 started to grow, for I had some lunch with me which my mother put up 

 for me to eat when I was hungry; but after the lunch was all gone, I 

 could find very little food in the sand, although my little roots reached 

 down and tried and tried to find something for me to eat. I finally grew 

 pale and could not put out another leaf." 



The explanations of these experiments should be simple, with no 

 attempt to teach the details of plant physiology. The need of plants for 

 rich, loose earth and for water is easily understood by the children; but 

 the need for light is not so apparent, and Uncle John's story of the starch 

 factory is the most simple and graphic way of making known to the 

 children the processes of plant nourishment. This is how he tells 

 it: "Plants are just like us; they have to have food to make them 

 grow; where is the food and how do they find it? Every green leaf is a 

 factory to make food for the plant; the green pulp in the leaf is 

 the machinery; the leaves get the raw materials from the sap and 

 from the air, and the machinery unites them and makes them into 

 plant food. This is mostly starch, for this is the chief food of 

 plants, although they require some other kinds of food also. The 

 machinery is run by sunshine-power, so the leaf-factory can make 

 nothing without the aid of light ; the leaf-factories begin to work as soon 

 as the sun rises, and only stop working when it sets. But the starch has 

 to be changed to sugar before the baby, growing tips of the plant can use 

 it for nourishment and growth ; and so the leaves, after making the starch 

 from the sap and the air, are obliged to digest it, changing the starch to 

 sugar ; for the growing parts of the plant feed upon sweet sap. Although 

 the starch-factory in the leaves can work only during the daytime, the 

 leaves can change the starch to sugar during the night. So far as we 

 know, there is no starch in the whole world which is not made in the leaf- 

 factories." 



This story should be told and repeated often, until the children realize 

 the work done by leaves for the plants and their need of light. 



"The clouds are at play in the azure space 

 And their shadows at play on the bright green vale, 

 And here they stretch to the frolic chase; 

 And there they roll on the easy gale. 



"There's a dance of leaves in that aspen bower, 

 There's a titter of winds in that beechen tree, 

 There's a smile on the fruit and a smile on the flower, 

 And a laugh from the brook that runs to the sea." 



BRYANT. 



