Teachers' Leaflet. 519 



MOTHERHOOD OF PLANTS. 



John W. Spencer. 



When we become chums with plants their impulse foi motherhood 

 is plain to see as the nose on one's face. I do not make this statement 

 as ,a simile but as a clear cut fact. Plants vary in their methods of 

 motherhood and all are good mothers, too. We see something similar 

 in our domestic animals. 



LESSON LXXXIV. 



Purpose. — To call the pupil's attention to the motherhood of animals 

 and birds. (As a preparation for the following lessons.) 



Observation lesson for pupils. — The care the cat gives her kittens. 

 The cow's care of the calf. The devotion of the mother bird to her 

 nestlings. Reading lessons on the devotion of animals and birds to 

 their young. 



One of my early financial enterprises was that of buying thirteen 

 duck eggs and borrowing a sitting hen. When she had hatched the 

 ducks her usefulness as a mother had passed and I returned her to her 

 owner with thanks. She loved those little ducks, but her method of step- 

 motherhood was not adapted to their waddling ways and habit of walking 

 one side at a time. They loved the water after the manner of mermaids, 

 while a few drops filled the hen's conceptions of necessary needs. I have 

 never known ducks to be used in hatching chickens, but the result may 

 be easily conceived. The young chickens could never adapt themselves 

 to the point of view and habits of life of a mother having a fiat bill and 

 web feet. 



LESSON LXXXV. 



Purpose. — To lead the children to understand that plants also have 

 the instinct for motherhood, although it is shown in a different wa} from 

 motherhood in animals. 



Observation lesson. — Count all the seeds in one burdock bur, mul- 

 tiply this by the number of burs on the plant, to show the number of 

 seeds the mother plant tried to scatter abroad. 



Although plants never have brawls, yet the competition among them 

 in gaining possession of all the real estate in sight is very strong. The 

 plan of conquest is to send seeds afield and occupy the soil on the prin- 

 ciple of " squatter sovereignty." The theory is the same as that of 

 Napoleon, that success is on the side of the largest battalions. It is by 



