deal about them, in this book which I am writing, on purpose to instruct and amuse you. Perhaps you will think it is not so pleasant to read about trees and flowers, as to read stories or to go to play. But if you wish to live useful lives, and be respected and happy, you must read and study for instruction, as well as

amusement.

Well, how many different kinds of plants do you think there are in the world? More than thirty thousand have been discovered! These vary in size, from the smallest mosses to the largest trees. For the mosses that grow on the rocks and fences have flowers, as well as the larger plants. But they are so small that you cannot see them with your naked eye. is necessary to look at them through a micros

Do all plants produce flowers and fruit?

How many different kinds of plants have been found?
How do these vary in size?

Can you see the flowers of all with your naked eye?

It

cope, or a large magnifying glass, and then you can see them very distinctly. Thirty thousand is a great many, but there are probably many more, that have never been found, or that are too small to be observed.

Can you tell how many flowers there are of any one of these thirty thousand kinds? Take a dandelion, for instance. Can you tell how many dandelions you ever saw? You have seen large fields yellow with them in the spring. They are very pretty flowers, too; much prettier than many you will find in a lady's flowergarden. But the lady does not want them in her garden, because they are so common. Every body can find dandelions enough: they grow in nearly all parts of the world. How many millions of them there must be! Nobody

Are there any more plants in the world, which have not been discovered?

Does each one of these kinds contain few, or many flowers?

can count them all. Now, if every one of these thirty thousand kinds consists of as many single flowers as the dandelion does, what a vast multitude of flowers there are! We cannot, indeed, conceive the number.

Do you ever think how, or in what manner, plants live and grow? We all know that God makes them grow; but the manner of their growing is very curious. Their life and growth are, in some respects, similar to those of animals. The circulation of the blood in the veins supports the life of an animal. The blood is formed from what it eats, and it is continually carried from the heart to all parts of the body; and when it is stopped at the heart, the animal immediately dies. In the

The dandelion is one kind-is the number of dandelions small? Can you form an idea of the number of single flowers on the earth? Is the manner in which plants live and grow, at all similar to the life and growth of animals?

What supports the life of an animal?

same way the sap of a tree is drawn from the earth to the roots, and through small passages, like the veins in your hand, it is conveyed up the body of the tree to all the branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit. If you should cut off all the little fibres of the roots, through which the sap is drawn into the tree, the tree would die. The tree lives and grows, but it cannot feel or move, like an animal.

We must next consider of what use plants are. They are necessary to support life. Without them we should have no food. Our bread is made of grain; we eat a great many vegetables, which grow in the garden; and trees produce our fruit. Do you think that if we

What supports the life of a plant?

From whence does the plant draw its sap?

How is the sap conveyed from the root of the tree to its branches and leaves?

Have plants any feeling?

Are plants useful?

Could we live without them?

had no vegetables, we could live on meat? But where should we get our meat? Cattle, sheep, and hogs live on grass, corn, and potatoes. They cannot eat dirt and stones, any better than you can. All animals live on the plants which grow on the earth.

If there were no trees, we could not have such comfortable houses as we have now. All our boards are made from trees. How many

useful things we have which are made of wood! We should freeze in the winter if we had no fires; and many parts of the country are dependent upon wood to make them.

Our shirts and other clothes are linen and cotton; and you know these are plants. Cotton grows at the South, and linen is made of

Are all animals dependent on them for food?

Have we any things made from trees which conduce to our comfort?
What are some of them?

Could we live without wood?

Of what are some of our clothes made?