Teachers' Leaflet. 521 



Plants without a navy will cross the sea, invade a foreign country 

 and carry on battles of conquest. A larger part of the plants we call 

 weeds — plants whose possession of the soil is contested by the hands of 

 the husbandman, are foreigners. These plants mostly come on ships as 

 stowaways, land by stealth like felons, and begin their crusade, which 

 rarely ends in failure. When once they gain a foothold on perhaps a 

 thimbleful of soil, though they are without feet, they march across a 

 continent, over mountains and across lakes, like an army of invasion. 



Their methods of transportation are by no means uniform. Some 

 weed mothers send their offspring on the wings of the wind. Others 

 seek conveyance by tides and streams. Some by hooked fangs fasten 

 their seeds to the clothing of men and the hair of animals. Some have 

 subway stems or roots and others shoot the seed some distance away, 

 chancing accidental means to carry them farther on. The limit of this 

 lesson does not permit giving the details, showing the many cunning 

 devices whereby these journeys are accomplished. 



Reference. — " Seed Dispersal," Beal. 



LESSON LXXXVIL 



Purpose. — To call attention of the children to the fact that animal 

 life is dependent on plant life. 



Observation lesson. — Let the pupils think for themselves that though 

 we eat beef or mutton, the cattle and sheep live on plants. Birds eat 

 insects, but the insects live on leaves or other parts of plants. 



Plants are the only living things that secure food from inorganic 

 matter. Were it not for this power of plants we should all perish from 

 starvation. The food of all animal life, from midget flies to elephants, 

 depends directly or indirectly on the food made by vegetable growths 

 having green leaves. 



LESSON LXXXVin. 



Purpose. — To cause the pupils to think of the leaves of plants as fac- 

 tories in which starch is made, and that these factories are run by 

 sunshine power. 



Observation lesson. — Study the house plants in the window and note 

 how all the leaves turn toward the light. Take two equally thriftv 

 plants out-of-doors or in the schoolroom window. Water and care for 

 them both alike, but from one keep all the leaves trimmed oflf. It will 

 die because it has no starch factories to manufacture food for it. 



We now come to another point which I hope will greatly interest 

 you: How is the food upon which all life depends made by plants? I 

 think no scientist will deny me the privilege of saying that it is all made 



