64 MANUAI, OF NATURB STUDY. 



Take any growing plant, submit it to pressure 

 and the juice will ooze out. How is cider made? 

 Cider, wlien fresh from the apple, is water holding 

 sugar and other substances in solution. 



The juice from the sugar cane, from which we 

 make molasses, sugar and candy, is simply water 

 holding in its hands sugar and candy. What is ' 

 the juice of the water melon? Cantelope? Peach? 

 Grape? Anything? What is the liquid part of 

 our blood? Where does the liquid come from that 

 we find in a fresh blister from a burn, or from fric- 

 tion caused by hard labor, or a rough place in the 

 shoe rubbing upon the foot? Then can water be 

 pressed out of muscle, skin, fat, or even bone, if 

 the pressure be great enough? 



Man is about two-thirds water, "enough," one 

 author says, "if rightly arranged, to drown him." 



Food for the plant must be dissolved in water 

 before it can serve as food for the plant. 



In our lesson on root hairs we said that these 

 hairs were little mouths* minutely small that reach 

 out to the fine dirt and suck the water out. They 

 serve as a filter, keeping chunks of sand, or lime, 

 or clay, or any solid matter from entering in a 

 solid state into the structure of the plant. But 

 all substances soluble in water can be drawn up 



*This is based upon the principle of osmosis, and though mouths do not exist 

 in root-hairs it is thought to be a simple way of presenting the principle to the 

 children. • 



