30 THE NEW METHOD 



While the sponge is alive it is always attached to a 

 rock. On the top of the sponge are two large holes 

 which have smaller ones branching into them. The 

 sponge is the most ignorant of all animals. It cannot 

 see, hear, taste, smell nor feel, and it seems to know 

 nothing at all. It has no blood, and only water cir- 

 culates through the tubes. It lives on little animals 

 that flow into it through the small tubes with the 

 water. 



"The Sea- Anemone belongs to a class a little 

 higher than the sponge. It has feelers all around its 

 mouth, and they look like fine sea-weed. The feel- 

 ers can contract and expand when they like, but their 

 movements are very slow. There are many species 

 of these animals, and some of them come from eggs, 

 and others from buds that grow out as they do on a 

 tree." Henry. 



Ferns. 



" The Aspidium thelypteris is a very pretty fern 

 and it grows in damp places, generally on the banks 

 of brooks or rivers in the eastern United States. 

 They do not grow in groups but one alone in a large 

 patch of them. It is usually from one to two feet 

 high and about five inches wide. 



" The stipe is about five inches long and is slender. 

 It is covered with fine hairs and on the under side is 



