18 FIEST STUDIES IN PLANT LIFE 



Drawing Exercise. — (1) Make drawings of a wheat-seedling 

 grown beliind glass, at various stagea, marking dates. 



(2) Draw side by side (a) a wheat leaf, (6) a French bean leaf, 

 to shew the different veinlng. 



III.— THE BOOT.— Paet I. 



1. How the root feeds by drinking. The great 

 tree was hungry, and the little root far out from the 

 trunk was searching for food in the hot, dry ground. 

 Now, there was in the earth the very food that the 

 tree needed. This food was close to the root, nay was 

 touching it, and yet the root could not lay hold of it. 

 The great tree was starving in the midst of food, 

 because the earth was quite dry. The tree could not 

 €at, because the little root could not drink. 



2. A great thunderstorm came, and the warm rain 

 soaked down to the earth, where the little root 

 waited. The food in the earth passed into the water, 

 and the root drank eagerly. Along the little root to 

 the great root, and from the great root to the trunk, 

 travelled the precious food. Then it cKmbed up the 

 stem, and ran along the branches ; it flowed into the 

 twigs, and shoots, and spurs ; it pushed into the 

 leaves, and into every vein of the leaves ; and soon 

 the whole tree, from the tiniest root to the topmost 

 leaf, was full of new life ! 



3. The foods supplied to the tree by the root. 

 " But, do not the leaves feed the tree ? " you ask. 



