356 NATURE STUDY. 



ing ? What happens if they cannot breathe ? Plants 

 must breathe, too, and they breathe with and through their 

 leaves. The leaves breathe the air much as we do. Part 

 of the food of the plant comes from the air ; and this the 

 leaves take in, through thousands of little mouths, so small 

 that we cannot see them. To make room for these mouths, 

 the leaves have to be spread out a great deal, as we have 

 to make the table large when there are many boys and girls 

 to eat around it. 



The leaves can take in this food best, and can best use it, 

 when the sun is shining on them. Without any sunlight 

 they and the plant would soon die. Hence each leaf loves 

 the sun, and turns toward it. 



To fix the parts and form of the leaf, it is helpful to 

 have the children draw it, always and only from nature, 

 with the leaf before them. They will draw more thought- 

 fully, and therefore more carefully, if led to think of the 

 relation between work and form, or between function and 

 structure. If they draw the leaf-stem as a single line, 

 without thickness, as they will almost certainly do, ask 

 them whether such a stem will hold up the blade when the 

 wind blows. If they think, when they are drawing, of the 

 use of the veins, they will be more apt to represent them 

 correctly, as radiating from the end of the leaf -stem and 

 reaching to the edge or margin of the leaf, so as to support 

 and carry nourishment to all parts of the blade. 



Before asking the children to draw, the teacher should 

 draw the leaf on the blackboard before them, emphasizing 

 those points about which the children are likely to make 

 mistakes, such as the double line to represent the stem, and 

 the relation to stem, direction, number, and length of the 

 veins. This drawing must always be erased before the 

 children begin to draw. 



Flowers and Fruit. Approach the flower as a thing of 



