FALL PLANT STUDY. 381 



He looked so jolly and so funny I had to laugh myself ; I could not 

 help it. 



Suddenly all was still. I listened, but could hear nothing. I 

 rubbed my eyes, as if I had been asleep. There were the ferns, and 

 the milkweeds, and the buttercup by the fence. Just flying away 

 was a robin. But all was quiet. 



Had my laugh frightened them ? Or had I been asleep, and 

 dreamed it all? I was never quite certain. 



THE DANDELION. 



Material. If two or three dandelion plants, with buds 

 and flowers, are carefully dug up, as directed in connection 

 with the study of the mallow, and are planted in the school- 

 room, the children can see all stages in the formation, ripen- 

 ing, and scattering of the seeds. The writer has kept for 

 six weeks, in jars of water in the schoolroom, dandelion 

 plants from which all soil had been washed, and has thus 

 studied with his pupils the growth and development of 

 roots, leaves, flowers, and seeds. ( See Chapter I. and Fron- 

 tispiece.) 



Life and Structure. This has been very carefully studied 

 in Chapter I. Touch lightly on minor points of structure 

 and details of life-history, most of which are too difficult 

 for first-grade children. Mother Dandelion, like most other 

 mothers, has some ways of caring for her babies which are 

 more or less peculiar to herself. Dwell on these, rather 

 than on the features in which all plant-mothers are alike. 

 Some of these characteristic adaptations, easily discovered 

 by even first-grade children, are : 



The storing up of " milk " in the root, which loses its 

 " milk " and becomes spongy as the seeds ripen. Why ? 



The position of the flower-buds or " seed-cradles " in 

 the bottom of the hollow at the middle of the rosette 

 formed by the leaves. Why ? 



