LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE 1

I N S T R U C T O R L I T E R A T U R E S E R I E S

Little Plant People at Homeand What they are Doing There

Part II

BY

Annie Chase

F. A. OWEN PUBLISHING COMPANYDANSVILLE, N.Y.

Copyright 1905, World’s Events Publishing Co.

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A PLANT WHO LIVES ONTHE HILLSIDE.

Little early Saxifrage lives up onthis dry hill close beside the big rock.

See how wise and cautious she is.

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She has made her leaves with veryfew openings or pores in them sothey shall not lose much moisture.

Water is scarce up on this pasturehill.

See how closely she lays her leavesdown upon the ground in a littlerosette.

She does this to keep the sun fromdrinking up the moisture around herroots.

Her roots are fine as the finesthair , but how many ofthem there are! She madethem threadlike becausethere is so little soil here

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on the rock for her to push themthrough.

She made a great many, so as todrink up all the moisture she canfind.

She has a strong root stalk justthere between the roots and theleaves. So strong is this and thosetiny hair roots that, as they grow,they often split great rocks in pieces!

The spring rains and melt ingsnows helped this little dweller onthe rock.

She comes up in spring with abud snuggled down in the middle ofher leaf rosette.

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She opens her blossoms close downto the ground. Then as the windsgrow kinder, she pushes up the wholecluster on a pretty, furry stem.

This fur on the stem is put thereto help keep the stem moist, and tokeep these ants here on the rockfrom crawling up and carrying offher honey.

She wishes to keep her honey forthe bees, because the bees will helpher make seeds; the ants will not.

Spring Everlasting is another littleplant who loves the dry, old pasture.

She has furry thick leaves and thelittle blossoms come up, their heads

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nestled into little furry hoods to keepout the cold spring winds.

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A PLANT WHO LIVES INTHE WOOD.

Little Anemone loves to live in thewood.

She loves the long cool shadows.

She loves the sheltering treesover her head.

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She loves the mossy carpetsprinkled with dried leaves at her feet.

She loves the quiet and the mois-ture of that pool not far away betweenthe maples.

Anemone can have thin delicateleaves because her home is so moistand so sheltered from rude winds.

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She can have tender roots too, be-cause the soil beneath her is lightand soft.

If you pick the Anemones theywill droop in your hand before youreach home.

The dear little things lose themoisture out of their leaf and stemcells.

When the little cells which makeup the whole plant are full of thewater which comes up through theroots, the cells swell out plump andround making the plant firm andupright.

When the water goes out of the

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cells their walls fall in and make thewhole plant limp.

A PLANT WHICH WEARSA BONNET.

The very first plant to come up inthe spring is the Skunk Cabbage.

How this odd plant does lovewater! He grows in the bog besidethe frog pond so he can drink just asmuch as he likes.

The blossom comes up first, anodd little knob with a big stripedpoke bonnet around it.

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Is the bonnet to keep out the cold?

How different are his big juicyleaves and stems from those of theplants which grow on the hillside!

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A PLANT IN THEMEADOW

[See Frontispiece]

Down by the brook are the goldencowslip blossoms. Their roots arein the water; their leaves and bloomsare in the new meadow grasses.

Here is a secret: Plant leaves havelittle holes in them as you havelearned. The holes are to let outand take in moisture and air.

On either side of everyone of theselittle pores or holes are little lips

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which open when the plant wishesto let out moisture, and which closewhen it wishes to keep the moisturein.

You wil l f ind the brook andmeadow plants have ever so many ofthese pores and that they keep themopen much of the time.

The hillside plants do not have somany and they keep them nearlyclosed except in too wet weather.

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THEDANDELION.

There is always something new tolearn of Dandelion though we studyher year after year.

Dandelion can make her home any-where, by the dusty wayside, downin the wet meadow, on the

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pasture hill, in the orchard, or byour door stone.

When she lives in wet places shehas thin leaves with many pores.

When she lives in dry places shehas thick tough leaves with fewerand closed pores.

When she lives on the hillside shehas short stems and her blooms areclose down among the mosses.

When she lives in the meadowwhere the grasses are tall she makeslong, long stems for her blooms andfor her leaves that she may catch hershare of sunbeams and breezes.

When the weather is damp she

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closes her blossoms up tight so thatno harm can come to her preciousgolden dust.

On such days Bee finds her doorsall locked and goes away disap-pointed.

Do you know why she notches herleaves in that odd way she has? Itis so the sunbeams can fall on everyleaf.

Do you know why dandelion’sstem will curl when you split it?

Because the outside skin of thestem “pulls” one way and the insideskin pulls another way.

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Rhubarb stem coverings will be-have in the same way.

These stem coverings are like the leafcoverings — waterproof.

ANOTHER PLANT INTHE WOOD.

Close by Anemonegrows the False So lo -m o n ’ s S e a l . W h a t atender, bright green shewears in her leaves!

See her l eaves areshaped and curved just

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right to catch the sunbeams as theypeep down to her between the treeboughs!

How pointed her leaf is! It needsthat trowel point to help it pry upthrough the dead leaves.

Here are some of her leaves whichhave come up through holes in thedead oak and beech leaves.

We will take off your chains, littleleaves, and set you free.

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JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT

Here is dear old Jack again.Have you heard him preach?Did you ever watch him make

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berries, pretty bright red ones, to putin the con-tri-bu-tion box?

You must let him grow in hisshady wood home all summer if youwish to have the fun of watching

him.

MAKING COLORS.

One of the tasks which the plantsmust do every year is to make colorfor their blossoms.

How can they do it?

We can find out but little aboutthis secret of the flowers. The color

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of the petals depends upon the sortof matter dissolved and taken fromthe soil into the sap of the plant.

In the tiny cells which make up aviolet is sap of a purplish color, and,floating in this sap are tiny yellowishgrains.

Upon the manner in which thesetwo are mixed together in the cells, depends the color of the violet’s petals.

Beth found a poor little purplemeadow violet which had beenbrought from its home and carelesslydropped in the street.

One petal had been cruelly tram-pled under foot and was quite white;

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the purple sap had all been crushedout of it.

But why and how do the plantsgrowing on the same sandy hillsidealways gather their own and no othercolor from the soil?

The wild rose draws pink, thesheep laurel crimson, the rock roseyellow, the violet blue or purple orwhite, from the same spot.

We do not know why this is sonor can we find out exactly. It isone of the plant children’s secrets.

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THE VIOLETS

Violets of the hills, the plains, themeadows, the valleys, the mountains,the woodlands, and every violet hasa color of its own.

T h e e a r l y b l u eviolet smil ing upfrom the pastureand roadside whereit gathers in greatnumbers like thou-

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sands of gay little girls at a picnic,is blue purple.

It flower stems are shorter thanits leaves.

The marsh violet, whichyou often f ind by thebrook in the meadow, isa pa le l i lac s t reakedwith purple veins.

The primrose leavedviolet has white petals

with purple veins.

The lance leaved violet of meadowand streams has white petals.

The Canada violet is a pale pur-plish white.

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Bird’s foot violetcomes nearest towear ing the r ea lsky b lue . I t i st inged w i th so f tpurp le and wearsa b i t o f br ight ye l -low which is verybecoming .

W h e n y o u f o l -l ow the wood path

through some damp shaded spot onthe edge of a bog or to where it leadsout to the meadow lands, you willfind the sweet scented white violet,which is all white except for a few

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purple veins near the center.

The hairy leaved yellow violet hasyellow violet and yellow petals.

The Prairie Violet is pale blue andits leaves are much like those of theBird’s foot violet.

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BATTERIES IN BLOSSOMS.

High Laurel has ways so droll theymust make the bees laugh.

Every Laurel bloom has nine or tenstamens.

On the end of each stamen is hunga tiny purse full of gold dust.

Each one of thesepurses is tucked into aw e e p o c k e t . E a c hp o c k e t i s l i n e d w i t hpink.

You can see the purses on the in-side of the blossom.

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You can seethe pouch - likepocket from theouts ide o f theblossom.

These purses are thus tucked awayto keep them safe from insect robbers.

Lest these pockets should not besafe enough for the purses, Laurelcovers her blossoms with stickygum.

If a robber ant tries to clamberboldly over this he is caught andheld fast.

“Keep away, ant robbers, keepaway! You will only carry the gold

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dust down to the ground where itwill be wasted.”

“Come, bees, come; you will helpto carry the precious gold dust fromone bloom to another and so help usmake seeds. Come, do come; hereis some sweet, sweet nectar for you.”

Laurel puts the sweet nectar onthe end of a stem (the pistil) in themiddle of the flower, and thrusts thisstem far out where bee can reach it.

Around the base of the stem Lau-rel draws a little pink circle, so thatbee can easily find the nectar.

Bee soon comes; he alights on thepink circle, then up flies every little

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This is a reproduction of a booklet in the possession ofElizabeth Allen.

stamen, out flies every little pursefrom every little pocket, and awayflies the gold dust all over Bee’s backand thighs and wings and legs.

“Why! why! ha! ha!” laugh thesunbeams dancing on the river intheir glee; “do see those flowers peltthat clumsy bee with pollen bullets!”

Bee does not mind the pat pat ofsuch tiny soft bullets but keeps ongathering sweets until he has visitedevery flower and emptied everypurse.

2002

An Elfin Press e-reprint