220 FIRST STEPS IN GENERAL KNOWLEDGE. 



Mary, " and then all the rings get joined together 

 like the links of a chain." 



" Very good ideas," said her father ; " and yon 

 may fancy, if yon please, when I have spoken of 

 a group of tribes connected with each other, that 

 they are friendly companies walking abreast, or 

 holding hands all round." 



Mary was delighted with this notion, and began 

 to fancy the whole vegetable creation a succession 

 of flowery wreaths, linked together into an endless 

 chain, until she recollected that there are flower- 

 less plants as well as flowering ones. 



" I see a flower in yonder hedge," said her 

 father, " which will illustrate our next tribe. It is 

 a slender, weak-looking plant, but covered with 

 tiny yellow blossoms." 



Kobert ran to get it, and he knew at a distance 

 that it must be the plant his mamma called 

 GALIUM, or crosswort bed straw. " I know what 

 it is," said he, as he came running back, " and I 

 know what its relations are, for mamma told me 

 to look at its leaves, which grow round the stem 

 like a star ; and then she showed me some sweet 

 woodruff, and some cleavers, or goose-grass,* which 

 grow just the same." 



* Galinm aparine* 



