THE BLOSSOMING PLANTS 19 



bees in getting their own food help the flowers to produce 

 better seeds, and that we in planting gardens for our own 

 food help to hnprove many of the plants which form the 

 earth's covering. 



Hand Work 



Seeds should be distributed among the children, the 

 teacher giving directions how to sprout them. The bean, 

 pea, pumpkin, melon or nasturtium seed should be 

 soaked for twenty-four hours in a warm place. At the 

 end of that time place the seed in a tumbler and, holding 

 it against the side, fill the tumbler with damp sawdust. 

 Keep the sawdust damp and keep the tumbler in a fairly 

 warm place, covered by a sheet of glass. Sphagnum 

 moss may be used instead of the sawdust. The whole 

 process of germination can be seen in this way. After the 

 seeds have grown enough to spread apart and hold the first 

 pair of leaves upright they should be taken from the glass 

 and drawn upon the sheet accompanying the leaflet. 



OPENING TALK 



If men cut down a hill and leave a gravel bank, what 

 does nature try to do? If a brick sidewalk is unused, 

 what happens? If a street is fenced ofl" and unused, will 

 it remain just as it was before? 



If you pull up all the little plants that nature sows in 

 your garden and leave the earth bare, will it stay bare? 

 Whose law is nature thus fulfilling? Tell me some of the 

 different places that the garment of the earth covers. 



Let us see what parts of earth's garment you have 

 brought to show us this morning. 



To-day we are to think how all the green garment of 

 the earth grows from seeds, and how the flowers and 

 the bees help each otlior. 



