94 
still stranger look than on a day when the air is not _ 
stirring. Picture a pear tree from every pear of which 
the long stem of a baby pear tree protrudes. Would 
you not be eager to find one of these pears and cut it 
open, and see what sort of a baby plant it must be that 
could send out such a great stem ? 
But perhaps the strangest part of the story is yet to 
come. At last all of these great beaks fall away from 
the fruit; and from the broken top of each grows a 
little bud, such as you see in the picture (Fig. 104). 
When this heavy beak falls upon the muddy ground 
below, its pointed end strikes first, and so bores into the 
earth. 
Fic. . Even if it happens to fall into the water, it does this 
with so much force that it will pierce its way to the 
depth of eighteen or twenty inches, and yet remain 
standing erect when it strikes bottom, where it sends 
out a root. When it has secured a good hold, the little 
bud unfolds into four leaves. Above these grow larger, 
shining leaves; and soon the ground beneath an old 
mangrove tree is covered with these daring little 
adventurers. 
A HUMPBACKED PLANT BABY 
OW let us pause for a moment, and try to recall 
a little of what we have learned since school 
opened. 
We learned that the fruit of a plant is the part which 
holds its seed, and that there are many different kinds 
