CHAPTER VI 



THE ROUND OP PLANT LIFE 



Thus far our lessons have been about soil, for from the 

 soil plants draw their moisture and all of their food except 

 carbon. Plants can not exist without soil ; neither can 

 soil exist without plants. The two are inseparable, and 

 our lessons should lead naturally from one to the other. 



32. The Life Cycle of Plants. — The year is made up 

 of seasons, one following the other. As spring passes 

 imperceptibly into summer with nothing but an arbitrary 

 division between, so one period in the life cycle of a plant 

 passes imperceptibly into another. For convenience in 

 our study, we have divided the life of a plant into seven 

 periods, devoting to each period one chapter, or lesson. 

 These are as follows : 



(1) The Seed : Its Selection and Distribution. 



(2) Seed Germination. 



(3) The Work of Roots. 



(4) The Work of Leaves. 



(5) The Work of Stems. 



(6) The Work of Flowers. 



(7) The Formation and Development of Seed. 



33. How the Parts of a Plant work together. — A seed 

 is selected and stored away by man, or it is carried by the 

 wind or in the fur of some passing animal. Thus it is 

 planted in a well prepared seed bed or becomes covered in 



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