92 FIRST STUDIES IN PLANT LIFE 



(9) Study the flat weed {mock dandelion). In what points ar& 

 its habits similar to those of the dandelion, and in what different ? 

 Each head of the dandelion lies down between flower-time and 

 balloon-time. Why is the habit of the flat-weed different ? 



(10) How does the Bathurst burr protect itself ? 



(11) Show how man copied Nature in choosing his hedge-plants. 

 Name some good hedge-plants. 



(12) Where are thorns placed in (a) the rose, (b) the hawthorn, 

 (c) the prickly acacia ? 



(13) Make a list of some of the pasture-plants of your district 

 that cattle will not eat. 



(14) The oleander is a hot-climate shrub. How does it protect 

 its leaves from the direct rays of the sun ? Compare the gum tree 

 leaves. 



(15) How is it that a nettle is harmless when grasped quickly 

 and strongly ? 



(16) The young shoots of some of our mountain plants are 

 regularly shortened by cutting winds. In spite of this, these 

 plants thrive. Compare grasses that have been cropped by 

 animals for ages. 



(17) Watch the narrow leaved plantain (rib grass) in a close- 

 cropped field, and then compare with one in some corner where it 

 is free to grow up. 



Composition Exercise. — 



Tell how the gorse has managed to thrive in spite of many 

 enemies , or the dandelion, the plantain, the flat weed or any other 

 roadside weed. 



Drawing Exercise. — 



(1) Draw a clover leaf as it looks f'a^ before opening out; (b) 

 by day ; (c) at night-faU. 



(2) Draw a branch of any prickly plant— (Bathurst burr, thistle, 

 furze, &c). 



XV.— THE FLOWEE.— Part 1. 



WHAT IS A FLOWER? 



1. What is a flower? A seedmaker. We have 



seen how hard the plant works ; how root and stem 



and leaves are as busy as the day is long. To what 



