Teachers' Leaflet. 525 



the flowers as fast as they open. The plants that perfect the seed vviU 

 show dedine sooner than the ones that do not. The one who is generous 

 with his flowers will get better ones and more of them besides knowing 

 the blessedness of giving. 



I have been speaking of self-sacrifice, and the great expense of 

 energy on the part of the mother plant in giving its offspring, the 

 embryo, the proper lunches to carry each through infancy into a period 

 of youth when the youngster will have all the necessary machinery to 

 make its own living. I will now speak of the prodigal profusion with 

 which she produces embryos. 



LESSON XCIV. 



Purpose. — To give the pupils a comprehension of what would happen 

 if all the seeds of any one plant should find free place for growth. 



Observation lesson. — Count all the seeds in one dandelion head. 

 Measure the space covered by one dandelion plant, multiply and see how 

 much space would be covered if every seed from one plant should grow 

 and mature. 



If all the seed that one thrifty maple produces during its lifetime, 

 stretching over a number of years, were to grow, how large a forest 

 do you fancy that mother could contemplate, supposing the tree were 

 gifted with thoughts? Again, fancy that all those trees in that maple 

 forest were to produce seeds and each seed was to be wafted to unoccu- 

 pied soil favorable to its growth, how immense would be this second 

 forest? Let the process continue, with the third forest and so on; how 

 long would it be that a continent would be necessary to hold the entire 

 number of maple trees ? This picture seems to fulfill the impulse of plants. 

 Each works to become a monopoly and occupy the earth with its own 

 race. The goal of one kind of plants is the goal to which other plants 

 are also striving, so we have one monopolist competing with others. In 

 the millions of seeds sent forth by the maples of a neighborhood, millions 

 fail. When you behold a stately maple, think of it as the survivor 

 of tens of thousands of seeds that left the mother plant for the same 

 career, but failed. I think of a plant as having the impulse of a trust to 

 be the sole occupant of the soil but is held in check by the competition 

 of other trusts. 



LESSON XCV. 



Purpose. — To make the pupils think why we hoe weeds in the 

 garden. 



Observation lesson. — Any weedy garden will afford an object lesson 

 in the fact that weeds in plenty retard the growth of the planted crop, 

 even if they do not choke it out altogether. 



