512 Home Nature- Study Course. 



LESSON LXXVI. 



THE CARROT TUBER. 



Purpose. — To interest the children in the way the carrot stores food 

 to help it develop its seed. 



Material. — One of the roots entire, one cut in lengthwise sections 

 and another in crosswise sections. First note the beautiful orange color 

 which shows plainly through the thin skin which covers the root. Note 

 the fine thread-like roots, which fringe all sides and reach out from the 

 tip. These are the working roots, reaching out into the soil for moisture 

 and nourishment. Note in the sections of the root, the more fibrous 

 central part is separated from the orange outer section by a line of lighter 

 color. Note that wherever a rootlet is given off there is a pin-like fiber 

 which extends to the center of the root. This whole edible part of the 

 carrot is properly called a crown tuber instead of a root because from 

 the top of it on its crown the leaves grow. 



After this lesson has been given, the story of the plant should be told, how 

 that it starts from the seed one year, but does not blossom and perfect seed until 

 a year from the fall after it is planted. Therefore, it must have some way of 

 passing the winter, and it stores up during the first season a large amount of food 

 in this crown tuber storehouse and thus remains safely in the ground all winter. 

 As soon as spring opens the leaves start fresh from the crown early in the season, 

 and the energy of the plant is not wasted by searching for more food, but is 

 devoted to the development of the flowers and the seeds. Call attention to the 

 fact that what is food for the plant in this case is also food for us. If a carrot 

 be planted in a pot the pupils will see that the stored food disappears, what was 

 the fleshy root becoming shrunken, as the leaves develop. 



References. — For detailed lesson see " Nature-Study with Common 

 Things," p. 107 ; " Botany," L.- H. Bailey, Chapter 6. 



THE TURNIP. 



Preliminary Work. — The turnip is also a crown tuber and its food is developed 

 and stored in a similar manner to that of the carrot. If a small one be potted and 

 given light and water it will, in a few weeks, send up a crown of leaves and be 

 quite decorative and an interesting object to study. It would be well to study this 

 at the same time that the carrot and l)eet are being studied, anil make special point 

 of the fact that in the same garden with the same soil, nourishment, sunlight and 

 air that the carrot stores up orange food, the beet stores up red food and the 

 turnip white or yellowish food. This fact should be used to impress the pupils 

 with the individuality of plant species, each plant being able to take the same 

 materials and color them so dift'ercntly. The lesson on the turnip slunild follow 

 the lines suggested in the carrot lesson. 



