II.—HOW PLANTS TAKE FOOD FROM THE SOIL (2).
A whole week went by before Uncle George was ready for the next lesson.
At last he called the children and said to them—“Tom, will you please fetch me the seeds which we put on the wet blotting-paper under the tumbler? Frank, bring me two leafy branches from a rose-bush in the garden; and, Dolly, please fetch two glasses from the kitchen.”
Now there was nothing the children liked better than to help their Uncle George, and all three rushed off at once to do his bidding.
While they were away Uncle George himself went into the garden, dug up two young plants, and brought them to the children in the study.
Sun-flower Plant in Water.
“Now, children,” said Uncle George, “we are ready to begin our lesson. Fill one of the glasses with water, Frank, and put one of your leafy rose branches in each glass—one branch in water and the other in a dry glass. Can you tell me what will happen to the branches?”
The children had many times seen what had happened to flowers when the maid had forgotten to put water in the vases, so that Tom readily said, “Yes, the one in the dry glass will wither, while the one in the water will keep fresh for some time.”
“How do you know that?”