HOW MOTHER NATURE WORKS
Dr. Chadwick, in her Blossom Babies, gives us a beautiful recital concerning the fertilization of plants, which provides an endless number of interesting stories. The water plants are very interesting in that the pollen is just light enough to float on the exact level of the mother part of the flower, otherwise fertilization could never take place, and there would be no more lovely lilies. Long throated blossoms are fertilized by their attraction for certain moths or humming birds who have long tongues. Mother Nature is exceedingly careful to reproduce her children, and in every conceivable way she sees to it that her plant-seeds are fertilized and distributed. We are all familiar with the dandelion and the thistle and a host of others which fly through the air with actual plumes, some seeds fly with wings, such as the maple; other seeds travel by clinging or sticking, such as the cockle burr; still others float and shoot; while we all know about a lot of seeds that are good to eat, such as the nuts and fruits, as well as many of the grains, such as corn, etc.
An incubator about hatching time is a wonderful object lesson in teaching the story of life. Take the children to visit one and let them actually see the live baby chicks coming forth from the seed-shells. Other wonderful lessons may be drawn from the mother horse or the mother cow; and it is impossible to portray the close companionship, the sublime trust and confidence, which exists between the mother and the child who have been bound together by these ties and sentiments of truthfulness, trustfulness, and frankness.