24 FLOWER-LAND. 



doubt, you know what its leaves are like quite well, 

 and have found out when you have been decorating 

 for " Merry Christmas " that they are very prickly 

 also. 



Leaves sometimes take the form of spines, as in 

 the gorse or furze, the prickly bush which grows on 

 heaths or commons, and has such beautiful yellow 

 flowers. 



Sometimes, instead of growing into spines, they 

 grow out into tendrils (p. 18). You can see these leaf 

 tendrils upon the plants of the common pea, as they 

 are twined round the pea-sticks in our gardens 

 ig. 15). 



You will soon become familiar with these differences 

 in the arrangement, and shape, and surface of leaves, 

 when you learn to make out the names of plants from 

 books in which they are described. But I hope you 

 can now tell me the difference between a simple leaf 

 and a compound one. 



I will tell you as we go home how useful the leaves 

 are in helping the plant to grow. Do you remember 

 how the plant gets any food at all ? Yes, you are 

 quite right. Liquid food is taken up from the soil. 

 through the roots, and so passes up into the plant. 

 It is in the sap, which goes up the stem and is spread 

 out through all the leaves. 



And through the leaves the plant breathes. I won- 

 der if you know what happens when you breathe. 



