ake) 
Although I have seen these plants do so many queer 
things that I am learning not to be surprised at their 
clever ways, I must own that I was a little astonished 
to see how anxious one of them was to save itself un- 
necessary trouble. 
There is a plant called the ‘amphibious knotweed.”’ 
This is a rather difficult name, I know. This word 
“amphibious” is applied to something that can live 
both in water and on land; and this plant grows some- 
times in the pond or river, and sometimes on the shore. 
When on land, its stem is covered with the hairs 
which serve to keep meddlesome insects from climbing 
up to its pretty balls of pink flowers. In the water 
there is no danger of any such attack from insects; and 
so when it happens to grow in the pond or river, this 
knowing little plant does not trouble itself to clothe 
with hairs its stem, but leaves this quite smooth. 
Next summer I hope you will hunt up the amphibious 
knotweed, and will compare the smooth water stem with 
the hairy one that grows on land. 
SEEMS AND SEED “LEAVES 
HE smaller plants usually have green stems. The 
larger ones have brown, woody stems, such as you 
see in bushes and trees; for the trunk of the biggest 
tree in the world is nothing but a great stem. 
The delicate green stems die down to the ground 
during the cold winter. Sometimes the whole plant 
