SOMETHING ABOUT PLANTS.
The name plant belongs in a general way to all vegetation, from the tiniest spear of grass or creeping flower one sees on the rocks by the brook-side, to the largest and tallest of forest trees.
Plants are divided into numerous groups of families, and the study of the many species belonging to each family, is very interesting.
There are thousands of kinds of grasses, shrubs, and trees, scattered over the different parts of the earth, and the larger portion of them are in some way useful to mankind.
In speaking of grasses, we are apt to think only of the grass in the meadows, which is the food for our horses and cattle; but there are other kinds of grasses which are just as important to man as the grass of the meadow is to the beast. These are oats, rye, barley, wheat, corn, and others, all of which belong to the grass family.
Perhaps it appears strange to you to hear wheat and corn called grass, and you ask how can that be.
In the first place, all plants that have the same general form and method of growth, belong to the same family.
Now, if you will pull up a stalk of grass and a stalk of wheat or rye and compare them, you will find that they are alike in all important respects.
The roots of each look like a little bundle of strings or fibers, and are therefore called fibrous; the stalks you will find jointed and hollow; and the leaves are long and narrow, tapering to a point at their ends.
Then, if you examine the seeds, you will see that they are placed near together and form what we call an ear or head, as in an ear of corn, or a head of wheat.
This same general form or structure applies to every one of the plants belonging to the grass family; and in this family are included all the different kinds of canes and reeds that grow in swamps and marshy places, as well as the bamboo of the tropics.
Shrubs are those plants which have woody stems and branches. They are generally of small size, rarely reaching over twenty feet in height. Small shrubs are usually called bushes.
In this class of plants, the branches generally start close to the ground, and in some cases, a little below the surface of the ground, rising and spreading out in all directions.
The common currant bushes, blackberry bushes, and rose bushes which we see in gardens, are shrubs.
So also are grape-vines, honeysuckles, ivy, and all other creeping vines. These are called climbing plants, because little tendrils or claspers which grow out of their branches, wind around and fasten themselves to any thing in their way.
Trees are the largest and strongest of all plants.
They have woody stems or trunks, and branches. These branches do not, as in shrubs, start close to the ground, but at some distance above, from which height they extend in different directions.
It is difficult to believe that some of the large trees we see, sprung from small seeds; yet it is true that all trees started in this manner.
The seeds are scattered about by birds and tempests, and falling on the soft ground, where they become covered with, leaves and earth, they take root and grow.
Thus the little acorn sprouts, and from it springs the sturdy oak, which is not only the noblest of trees, but lives hundreds of years.
The trunks and branches of trees are protected by a covering called bark. This bark is thicker near the base or root of the tree than it is higher up among the branches.
On some trees, the bark is very rough and shaggy looking, as on the oak, ash, walnut, and pine; on others, the bark is smooth, as on the beech, apple, and birch.
Some trees live for only a few years, rapidly reaching their full growth, and rapidly decaying. The peach-tree is one of this kind.
Other trees live to a great age. An elm-tree has been known to live for three hundred years; a chestnut-tree, six hundred years; and oaks, eight hundred years.
The baobab-tree of Africa lives to be many hundred years old. There is a yew-tree in England that is known to be over two thousand years old.
The "big trees" of California are the largest in the world, although not of so great an age as some that have been mentioned. The tallest of these trees that has yet been discovered, measures over three hundred and fifty feet in height, and the distance around it near the ground is almost one hundred feet. The age of this tree must be between one thousand five hundred and two thousand years.
Directions for Reading.—Let, pupils pronounce in concert and singly, the following words: corn, stalks, important, form, tall, walnut, horses.
In the fifth paragraph on page 199, why are some and others emphatic?[12]
Mark inflections of oak, ash, walnut, and pine; and of beech, apple, and birch.
Language Lesson.—Place dis before each of the following words, and then give the meaning of each of the words so formed.
appear covered able like believe
LESSON XLII.
flush, bright red color.
low'ing, the bellowing or cry of cattle.
rang'ing, wandering.
in tent', determined.
striv'ing, making great efforts.
pre serve', keep in safety.
re flect'ed, shining back; thrown back, as by a looking-glass.
pro ceed'ed, went forward.
checked, stopped.
blasts, sounds made by blowing.