Beads

“ By adding to this store of beads the contents of two belts, one of which was nine inches in breadth, and so long that when placed upon the shoulders it reached to the ankles, we conclude that the greatest collection ever taken from a prehistoric mound could not compare for a moment with the treasure of this one historic chieftain.
A great deal of art is shown in the stringing and mounting of beads. The simplest form is a single strand, a twisted string of vegetable fiber, a strip of buckskin, or a bit of sinew being passed through the perforations. ”

“ The white and the dark-colored beads were threaded and carefully arranged into patterns when belts or other woven pieces of ornament were made. The threads were either of vegetable fiber or of deer sinews, and long strings were sometimes made of the bark of the slippery-elm tree. Dark-colored parts of the shells from which the beads were made were called black, but they were really dark shades of purple. White beads meant peace. Dark beads were woven into the belt either in square or diamond patterns or in some more irregular shape. ”

“ Nowadays there are of course many more kinds of beads—beads of glass, china, gold and silver, [76] and even of semi-precious stones. After all, though, the child who lives in the country or by the sea can gather the most interesting kind of all—such as were strung by those children who lived so long ago—seeds, berries, shells and seaweed. Gather them on a sunshiny day and store them away for use in the dull hours when you are obliged to be indoors.
The seeds of muskmelons are soft enough to pierce; watermelon seeds will take more effort and a stronger needle. ”

“ Give them a handful of gorgeous glass beads, a stick of sealing-wax, or some spotted beans, and keep your pale sea-tears, milky and frozen and apt to grow sickly yellow and die if they are not cared for. ”

“ Beads have been made from remote antiquity, and are found in early Egyptian tombs; variegated glass beads, found in the ground in certain parts of Africa, as Ashantiland, and highly prized by the natives as aggry-beads, are supposed to be of Egyptian or Phoenician origin. Beads of the more expensive materials are strung in necklaces and worn as articles of personal adornment, while the cheaper kinds are employed for the decoration of women’s dress. ”

“ The standard bead, and one of the most value, is a large one of white enamel, manufactured in Italy only, and is with difficulty procured in sufficient quantity to satisfy the demand, as beads are more prized than English cloth and blankets. ”

“ The bead here represented is composed of shell, and is well wrought. Some of this description have been obtained, which are not less than two inches in length by half an inch in diameter. Abundance of others have been found of similar material but different shape: some are round, but most are oblong; a few are lens-shaped.
But the most interesting and remarkable of the whole series are the pearl beads, of which a large number have been found in the altar or sacrificial mounds. By exposure to the heat, they have lost their brilliancy and consequent value as ornaments ”

“ Children alone wear beads round their necks; grown persons of both sexes prefer them suspended in little bunches from the ear, and sometimes intermixed with triangular pieces of the shell of the pearl oyster. ”

“ Some of these appear to be of late Roman workmanship . Three of the rudely formed flat beads, measuring in diameter about 11/4 inches, two formed of baked clay (fig. 13) , the other of bone turned in the lathe (fig. 14) , occurred amongst these remains: similar objects have been repeatedly found in spots occupied in early times. ”

“ The women, particularly those who are young, run a wooden pin through their noses, upon each end of which they fix a kind of shell bead, which is about an inch and a half long, and nearly the size of the stem of a common clay pipe. These beads they obtain from their neighbors, the At-e-nâs, who purchase them from another tribe that is said to take them from the sea-shore, where they are reported to be found in plenty. ”

“ Glass beads are now the most common sort; they form a considerable item in the African trade.—In architecture and joinery the bead is a small round moulding. It is of frequent occurrence in architecture, particularly in the classical styles, and is used in picture-frames and other objects carved in wood.—St. ”

“ Sixteen polished, perforated stone beads, greenish color, two very large. Rare. Santa Barbara, Cal. 187 Shell Beads. Three strings of Shell Beads. Fine and perfect specimens. New Madrid Co., Mo.; Calhoun Co., Ill. and mound, Calhoun Co., Ill. 3 pcs 188 Crinoid Beads, etc. Strings Crinoid and shell beads from grave, Calhoun Co., Ill., burial mound, Pike Co., Mo. and San Miguel, Cal. 5 pcs 189 Bone Beads. Five bone beads, 3⁄8 to 11⁄4 in. (human?) . Stanley, Ark. 5 pcs 190 Shell and Glass. One small string fresh water shells, two strings of red and blue, long glass beads. ”

“ JOHN. Gramercy, Friar, for this gift,
And if thou come unto my shrift,
I'll make thee call those fellows fools
That on their foes bestow such tools.
SCATH. Come, let's to't.
[Fight, and the FRIAR looks on.
FRIAR. The youth is deliver [240] and light,
He presseth Scathlock with his might:
Now, by my beads, to do him right,
I think he be some tried knight.
SCATH. Stay, let us breathe!
JOHN. I will not stay;
If you leave, Friar, come away.
SCATH. I prythee, Friar, hold him play.
FRIAR. Friar Tuck will do the best he may. ”

“ Wherever the Sunbeam falls we find life and motion; elsewhere, death and stillness. Under its influence the seed germinates, the stem sends forth branches, the leaf bursts from the bud, the flower unfolds its petals, and the fruit grows and ripens. ”

“ A bean is the best type of the whole structure. An almond out of its shell, a peach-kernel, and an apple-pip are also clear and perfect, though varied types.
5. The husk, or seed-vessel, is seen in perfect simplicity of type in the pod of a bean, or the globe of a poppy. There are, I believe, flowers in which it is absent or imperfect; and when it contains only one seed, it may be so small and closely united with the seed it contains, that both will be naturally thought of as one thing only. ”

“ A, outside of Bean; (h) black scar showing where the bean was attached to the pod; (r) ridge made by young root; B, bean split open; (n) nurse leaves; (p) baby plant; (a) scar where the baby plant was separated from the nurse leaf on that side.
In the case of maize and corn, however, you will find that the seed does not split into two equal parts like the bean, but that the young plant lies at one side of the [10] seed, and a solid white mass fills the rest of the space (see fig. 5) . There are also differences in the seedlings which you will notice when they begin to grow. ”

“ This part is not only in the Bean, and the Seeds above mentioned; but in all others: being that which upon the Vegetation of the Seed, becomes the Root of the Plant; which therefore I call the Radicle: by which, I mean the Materials, abating the Formality, of a Root, ’Tis not easie to be observed, saving in some few Seeds, amongst which, that of the Bean is the most fair and ample of all I have seen; but that of some other Seeds, is, in proportion, greater; as of Fœnugreek, which is almost as big as one of its Lobes. ”

“ Every part is flower, (or fruit,) such is its superfluity of color,—stem, branch, peduncle, pedicel, petiole, and even the at length yellowish purple-veined leaves. Its cylindrical racemes of berries of various hues, from green to dark purple, six or seven inches long, are gracefully drooping on all sides, offering repasts to the birds; and even the sepals from which the birds have picked the berries are a brilliant lake-red, with crimson flame-like reflections, equal to anything of the kind,—all on fire with ripeness. ”

“ The bead of this color is given for attainments in Nature Lore—knowledge of trees, flowers, ferns, grasses, mosses, birds, bees, butterflies, moths, stars. If the girl knows the planets and seven constellations and their stories, she may wear the blue bead. Also if she does a certain amount of work in a flower or vegetable garden of her own, raises a crop of something and cans, pickles or preserves her product, or if she carries on an experimental garden, planting, for instance, one plot with pedigreed and one with unpedigreed seeds and recording the results, she wins the blue bead. ”

“ The very forest and herbage, the pellicle of the earth, must acquire a bright color, an evidence of its ripeness, as if the globe itself were a fruit on its stem, with ever a cheek toward the sun.
Flowers are but colored leaves, fruits but ripe ones. The edible part of most fruits is, as the physiologist says, "the parenchyma or fleshy tissue of the leaf," of which they are formed. ”

“ The root and a little of the lower stalk is from a seed, and upon this has been grafted or spliced with soft bands and wax, a bud from some choice kind of peach or apple or plum, or whatever the tree is to be, and this new bud grows and forms the tree. Sometimes a bud of the choice kind is merely inserted beneath the bark of another tree and grows and forms a new limb. By and by, when it bears fruit, the fruit will be of the kind that was on the choice tree, but the seed, though it looks just the same, may be altogether different. ”

“ That from which a stem with its leaves is continued, or a new stem (i. e. branch) originated, is a Bud. The most conspicuous and familiar buds are those of most shrubs and trees, bearing buds formed in summer or autumn, to grow the following [Pg 13] spring. But every such point for new growth may equally bear the name. When there is such a bud between the cotyledons in the seed or seedling it is called the Plumule. This is conspicuous enough in a bean (Fig. 29.) , where the young leaf of the new growth looks like a little plume, whence the name, plumule. ”

“ Bees visiting the flower fall into the bucket and crawl out at the spout. By the peculiar arrangement of the parts of the flower, the first bee which does so, carries away the pollen mass glued to his back, and then when he has his next involuntary bath in another flower, as he crawls out, the pollen attached to him comes in contact with the stigma of that second flower and fertilises it. ”

“ Quite often, the bees, or birds, will carry a germ from one flower to another when they visit it to sip the nectar, and this fertilization of the seed, after the flower dies, is made manifest in a totally different color in the next production of the plant. ”

“ Bees produce honey, which they lay up for winter consumption; wax, of which they form their cells; and a substance called bee-bread, which they extract chiefly from the pollen of flowers, and which they use for feeding their young. ”

“ The dry air shrinks the outside of the scales, and they turn downward; the circle of feathers at the top of the slender support attached to the seed-like fruit below spreads out, and the community, which now looks like a white ball of down, is ready for a breeze. ”

“ The seed coat of the bean is filled by these leaves, for each half of the bean is really a seed leaf. In these two thick leaves is stored all the food that is necessary to the life of the baby plant; and because of all this food which they hold, the bean plant is able to get a better start in life than many other young plants. ”

“ Now you know how the coat came by its scar, for the scar was the spot which showed where the bean had been broken from the pod.
"What do you mean by growing?" said the other voice, which came from a large red stone.
"Why," said the bean, "don't you know what growing means? I thought every thing knew how to grow. You see, when I grow, my root goes down into the soil to get moisture, and my stem goes up into the light to find heat. Heat and moisture are my food and drink. ”

“ The pupils should notice that the buds are always just above the large triangular scars. If they are still in doubt as to the cause of these marks, show them some house-plant with well-developed buds in the axils of the leaves, and ask them to compare the position of these buds with their branches. The buds that spring from the inner angle of the leaf with the stem are axillary buds; those that crown the stems are terminal. Since a bud is an undeveloped branch, terminal buds carry, on the axis which they crown, axillary buds give rise to side-shoots. ”

“ The food of a young seedling.—When such a seed as that of a bean is germinated in damp sawdust or wet clean sand, and kept in a warm and light place, it puts out a radicle, which grows downwards and becomes the main root, and a stem which grows upwards and bears green leaves. ”

“ The service that bees perform to flowers is a subject that has attracted much attention of late years. As every one knows, or should know, a flower has its stamens and pistils, which are respectively its male and female organs, and the pollen contained in the anthers, or little knobs on the summits of the stamens, must be conveyed to the pistils, or no seed will be produced. ”

“ To-day we passed one of these lofty trees bearing above twenty bees’ nests, among them four old ones 52 white with wax.1 As the country is full of tapangs, in which alone do the bees build their nests, the stories of the great amount of wax formerly procured in this district may be true. Why do the honey-bees generally build on one particular tree? Its being the finest in the forest is no good reason, perhaps there is something enticing in the bark. ”

“ The peculiar short, stunted branches or “spurs” which bear the flower-buds of the pear, apple, plum, sweet cherry, red currant, laburnum, &c., deserve special attention. In the rose, passion-flower, clematis, honeysuckle, &c., in which the flower-buds are developed at the ends of the young shoot of the year, we have examples of plants destitute of flower-buds during the winter.
Propagation by Buds.—The detached leaf-buds (gemmae or bulbils) , of some plants are capable under favourable conditions of forming new plants. ”