Thomas W. Hoare

“ You see the root and shoot are just beginning to show.
“Make a sketch, drawing it as large as you can, and write under it, ‘Maize seed after a week’s growth.’
“Do the same with a seed from each of the other three boxes, and when you have drawn them all, tell me of any differences you notice between the growth of maize and that of the bean.”
“They do not grow in the same way at all,” said Frank, as he drew his last sketch. “In the maize seed the baby plant seems to be stuck on to one of the flat sides of the seed.” ”

“ Uncle George replied. “The rook is 15 one of the farmer’s best friends; and if it were not for thrushes, starlings, blackbirds, and such insect-eating birds, our gardens would be overrun with insects. If these insects were allowed to increase, we should not be able to grow anything. Even the sparrow is the gardener’s friend. He eats the caterpillars that would spoil our fruit trees and bushes.” ”

“ Now, why should it seek other soil?”
“For food!”
“That is right, Frank. Those plants which have underground stems seem to die down every autumn; but they are alive all the time under ground, safe from the frosts and bitter winds which kill tender plants. And they peep up in a new place in spring.
Anemone.
“Now I want you to tell me why these underground stems are swollen out so. It cannot be for strength, for creeping stems don’t require to be strong.
“Fetch me a raw potato, Tom, please!
“Now,” Uncle George continued, “tell me what this potato is.”
“It is an underground stem,” said Frank. ”

“ Just imagine how a bird would feel with one of these ticklish customers stuck in his throat, eh?
“Now, boys, make a sketch of one of the tiny eggs, also one of the big cabbage caterpillar, and then we will go out and have a game of cricket on the lawn.”
Exercises on Lesson XII. 1. Where would you look for the eggs of the white butterfly? Why are they always laid upon the same kind of plant, and why under the leaf? 2. Explain how caterpillars breathe. 3. Take any caterpillars you find. Observe the leaves you find them feeding upon. Give them fresh leaves every day, and watch how they grow. ”

“ Nature Study involves so many ingenious little deductions, that the reasoning powers are almost constantly employed, and intelligence grows proportionately. The child’s powers of observation are stimulated, and his memory is cultivated in the way most pleasing to his inquiring nature. By dissecting seeds, bulbs, buds, and flowers, his hand is trained, and methods expeditious and exact are inculcated. ”

“ Be careful to use water not colder than the temperature of the room in which the seeds are grown. Nothing checks growth more effectively than chilling with icy-cold water. It is a good plan to keep the watering-pan full of water near the hot pipes, refilling it always after use.
Seeds germinate best in the dark, but whenever the plumule shows above the sawdust, the box containing them should be placed in the light. Sufficient seeds should be sown at one time to supply a plant to each pupil once a week for at least four weeks. ”

“ The boys noticed that many of the birds fed at both places. Among these were sparrows, robins, chaffinches, thrushes, and starlings. These birds, their uncle explained to them, fed on a mixed food of insects, seeds, and fruits.
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It amused them very much to watch how the rooks and jackdaws always dragged the food away from the dish, as if they were stealing it; while now and then a blackbird would fly away with a loud chatter, as if he had been suddenly found out whilst doing something very wrong.
“These birds,” said Uncle George, “are looked upon as enemies by farmers and gardeners. ”

“ There is nothing that appeals to the heart of the ordinary child like living things, be they animal or vegetable, and there is no branch of education at the present day that bears, in the young mind, such excellent fruit as the study of the simple, living things around us. ”

“ Soon another pair of these feathery gills appeared: so that each little creature had now three on each side of his head.
By the end of the second week the little creatures had all wriggled out of the eggs. They hung together by their feathery gills in little black groups.
“What shall we feed them on?” Frank asked his uncle.
“They are not at all nice in their tastes,” Uncle George replied. “They will eat almost anything, from water weeds up to drowned kittens. If they get nothing else, they will eat one another, and not mind it a bit.” ”

“ Most people think that plants draw their food chiefly from the soil. This is a great mistake.
“Plants take most of their food from the air, as you will see if you watch the growth of this plant. Of course, it has a good food store in the seed; but I think you will be surprised at the growth it makes from that food store, the bottle of tap water, and the air.”
Exercises on Lesson VI. 1. Make sketches of a soaked bean and of a soaked maize seed. 2. Place a few beans (or peas) and a few maize (or wheat) seeds in a box of damp sawdust. Water regularly. ”

“ Dig up a primrose plant, and make a rough sketch showing underground stem, roots, and leaves. 2. An underground stem may be of use to a plant in three different ways. Can you name them? 3. There are two distinct kinds of underground stems—those that grow quickly and those that grow slowly. Name three of each kind, and tell how they differ in shape. 4. Compare a potato with a horse-chestnut twig. Supposing your twig to be swollen out with plant-food, what parts of it do the “eyes” of the potato represent? ”

“ Newt tadpoles live in the pond for more than a year. They have feathery outside gills on all that time. Their fore feet are formed first. If you remember, our frog tadpoles got their hind legs first.
“Long ago people believed all sorts of absurd things about the poor, harmless newt. They were afraid to touch it. Every newt found was killed at once, for it was thought to have a sting and poison bag. Even at the present day many people believe that newts and toads are dangerous animals.”
“How can you tell a toad from a frog, Uncle George,” Tom asked. ”

“ Seed-eating birds, as their uncle told them, have short, stout, hard bills, just the thing for shelling seeds. The insect-eaters have longer and more slender bills; while birds that live upon both seeds and insects have bills hard 13 enough to shell seeds and yet long and sharp enough to pick insects out of their hiding-places. ”

“ Make a drawing of a small beech twig, showing buds and leaf-scars.
25 IV.—A BABY PLANT.
“To-day,” said Uncle George, “we are going to try to find out something about seeds.” And he placed upon the table a saucerful of beans which had been soaking in water for two days.
“First let us look at the seeds as they are when we get them from the shop,” he said, laying a handful of hard, wrinkled beans upon the table.
“They are as hard as stones, and very much smaller than those we soaked,” said Frank.
“Yes, that is one thing we have learned about them already. Seeds take in water and swell greatly.” ”

“ He lives on insects. The bullfinch feeds on berries 11 and seeds. He is also blamed for eating the young buds of fruit-trees in spring-time, but I am not quite sure that he does this.”
“Where are all the insects in winter, Uncle George?” asked Frank.
“Well, most of them are buried deep in the ground. Some of them are tucked up in warm cases, and hidden in the chinks of trees and walls.”
“Then why don’t the birds that feed on insects search those trees and walls for them,” Frank asked.
“So the birds do, but the sleeping insects are very hard to find. ”

“ Those birds that stay with us all the year round have often a 8 hard fight for life in winter-time. In fact, many of them starve to death.
“Most of our birds fly to warmer countries in autumn, and come back to us in spring. These miss the frost and snow, but a great number of them get drowned while crossing the sea. I think, as a little boy, you are much better off.
“Let me see; have you put out any food for the birds this morning?”
“Yes, Uncle George, we have done exactly as you told us,” said Frank. “Mother made a little net, which we filled with suet and scraps of meat for the tomtits. ”

“ The toad also casts his skin, but he does not throw it away like the newt. He takes his old, cast-off skin, rolls it up into a neat little ball, and swallows it.
“The frog’s body is more slender. His skin is slippery. It is not dull and dingy like that of the toad. It is of a bright greenish yellow colour, marked with black spots of different sizes.
1. Frog. 2. Toad. 3. Frog catching a Fly with its tongue.
“The frog can change his colour from light to dark. He has long hind legs which enable him to hop very high on land and to swim very fast in the pool. ”

“ He emptied 57 the contents of the tube into a little dish, and Frank looked at the tadpole with a glass.
“I can’t see the gill-slits,” said Frank.
“Oh yes, you can, if you look closely. What seems to be a big head is really head and body covered over by a cloak of skin.”
“Yes, I see the gills now,” said Frank. “They are red in colour. I also see the cloak. There is an opening on the left side of it.”
“That is so,” said his uncle. “That opening is there to let the water into the gills.”
At the end of the fifth week, Uncle George took some tadpoles out for the boys to look at. ”

“ The horse-chestnut and beech have tall, stout stems, which rear up their branches far out of the reach of grazing animals. The hawthorn is a low growing tree. Its branches are within easy reach, and its tender buds would be nipped off by sheep and cattle if it were not for these sharp thorns.
“The thorns also prevent the buds from being knocked off by anything rubbing against the hawthorn 24 hedge. You will notice that each thorn is very much longer than the buds beside it. These thorns can give a very cruel prick, as every boy knows who has tried to cut a twig from the hawthorn hedge. ”

“ I see Tom has drawn them. They are swollen. Are they roots, or underground stems?”
“They have neither leaf marks on them, nor buds,” said Frank, “I think they must be roots.”
“They are roots,” said Uncle George, “but they are food supplies all the same.
“There are other underground stems that grow quickly. Good examples of these are mint, couch grass, 75 and sand sedge. The underground stems of these plants grow so fast that they are always occupying new ground. ”

“ Soak some seeds of broad bean (or pea) and maize (or wheat) for twenty-four hours. Plant some in damp sawdust. 2. What do you see when you open a bean seed? 3. Pick off the little baby plant, and try to draw it big. 4. Cut down through the centre (flat side) of a maize seed. Try to make out the little seed plant and the food store. 5. Every third day dig up a growing seed and draw it. Put the date beneath each drawing. Keep your drawings carefully.
30 V.—HOW A PLANT GROWS.
Every day the boys watched their buds and seeds bursting into life. ”

“ He lives upon flying insects, which he catches with his curious long tongue. He gets very fat during summer and autumn.
“Before winter comes on, he looks out a snug hole under a root or stone. Here he sleeps the whole winter through.
“In spring he wakes up, lean and hungry, and betakes himself to the pond.
“The eggs of the toad are laid in the water in long strings, each like a double row of beads. They hang gracefully upon the water weeds, and look very pretty.
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“The toad tadpoles are very like those of the frog. They go through the same changes. ”

“ Frank observed.
“Why are they always adding to the length of their cases?” asked Tom.
“Because they are always growing,” said Frank.
“That is the reason,” said Uncle George; “and they grow so fast that they have actually to work hard at building.
“Observe those that make their cases out of tiny shells and stones. They have made free use of the coloured beads and small pieces of coal which we put in.”
“How do they manage to stick these things together?” asked Tom.
“A caddis worm is a busy creature,” his uncle replied. “He does two things besides eating and growing. ”

“ The female caddis fly lays her eggs in the water. She sometimes even crawls down right into the water to lay them.
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“A tiny caddis grub, no bigger than this pin-head, comes out of each egg. As soon as he hatches out, he begins to build his case, to eat, and to grow; and from the moment of his birth up to the closing up of his tube, he is scarcely a moment idle.”
Exercises on Lesson XIV. 1. Turn a caddis worm out of his case in the way described in the lesson. Place the insect in a saucer half filled with water, and make a rough sketch of it. 2. ”