118 
MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 
store house from which the plant next year may 
draw supplies for the devolopment of cabbage 
seeds, which when sown will produce new cabbage 
plants. The potato, in its native country, is used 
in the same way, but man and animals have taken 
advantage of these plants, broken open their 
store houses, robbed them of their supplies, and 
made merchandise of them. But man is not a rob¬ 
ber after all, for he repays the plant for all that he 
has taken. 
How does he do this? How do other animals 
repay the plant? In dissemination, etc. See inter¬ 
dependence of plants and animals, fourth grade 
work. Fine fruits, as apples, cherries, strawberries, 
peach, plum, are used by the plant for the same 
purpose of reproduction. Their flesh is edible and 
colorations attractive, both of which lead to dissem¬ 
ination of seed for the plant as well as commerce 
for man and food for animals. Draw the conclus¬ 
ion that self-preservation is the first great law of 
nature, and that in obedience to this law, the plant 
produces seed and fruit in order that it may live 
again; also, that when it yields up its fruit and 
store of nourishment to man for his food, the pur¬ 
pose of the plant is not defeated as it may at first 
appear, but strengthened, in that man now becomes 
the friend of the plant in its struggle for existence. 
