rience. He said, however, that there was danger in lying down on the ground and going to sleep. One is likely to take cold if there is dampness in the grass or leaves. Since then I have been more cautious about going to sleep on the ground."

3. NOTES.

I. The Cell. Cells form the real fabric and working machinery of the plant. As a workman handles wood, iron, mortar, and other materials with which to construct buildings, so do plant cells appear to hold or carry materials other than those of which they are really (chemically) composed, such as starch, sugar, phosphoric acid, potash, and small quantities of some other substances.

The starch and sugar carried by the cells are almost identical with the cellulose of the cell itself. These substances are stored in the grain, the bulb, or the stem of the plant, where they serve to nourish the young plant until it is old enough to secure food through the roots from the soil, or through its leaves from the air. Thus stored, they also serve as animal food.

The phosphoric acid carried by the cells is largely

deposited in the grain, whence it becomes the

source of much of the phosphorus in the bones of animals.

The potash they carry is represented by the ashes of the plant.

The presence of starch is readily detected by the

color test.

Experiment. Pour diluted iodine on a piece of potato, turnip, onion, or in flour, meal, etc., and the starch in them will turn blue.

There is a certain circulation within the cell. This

may be observed by making the following test. Experiment. Place a small piece of any water plant, any leaf, or piece of wood under a microscope.

Observe the cells and the circulation beneath the cell wall, that is, within the cell.

2. Rise of Moisture in Soil and Plants. Liquids rise in small openings by a force called capil lary attraction.

Experiment. Place two or more glass tubes of different size bore, and open at both ends, vertically in water. Observe that the water rises in each tube, but rises highest in the smallest tube.

Liquids rise by passing through a membrane

and mixing with some other liquid by a force called osmose.

Experiment. Fill a glass jar that has a wide opening at top nearly full of water. Fill a thin leather bag, or a bladder, with oil (other than coal oil), such as machine oil, or lard oil. Rest the bag or bladder of oil on the jar so that it touches the water. Observe that the water passes through the membrane up into the oil. Experiment. Make a small hole in the little end of an egg through to the white of the egg. Insert a small glass tube in this hole, and close around the tube with sealing wax where it enters the egg, making it air tight. Then break the shell on the big end of the egg, but not the membrane that lines the shell, making a hole in the shell as large as a silver quarter. Rest the egg, large end down, on the wide mouth of the jar or bottle filled with water, so that the membrane touches the water. Observe that the water will rise in the egg through

the membrane, and that the white of the egg will rise in the tube.

This illustrates both the passing of moisture in

through the bark of the root of the plant by osmose, and the rise of sap in the plant by capillary attraction.

LESSON XVIII.

THE LITTLE EAR AND ITS BIG FRIEND.

I.

"O dear me! I cannot get my nose out! I cannot get my breath! What shall I do? What shall I do?'

"These words came, in a piping little voice, from a stalk of corn that grew just over the fence in a neighboring field.

"I was a big ear, and my nose was sticking out from under the husk that once covered me. As I looked through a crack in the fence I could see the poor little ear that had cried out so piteously. There were six or seven stalks growing together, but only one stalk bore an ear, and that was the small ear that was crying. Again it cried, ‘O dear! O dear! What shall I do?'

་

"I was fast upon my stem and could not go to its relief. I begged of it, after a kindly greeting, to confide to me its history so that I might be of greater service.

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"O yes, to be sure,' said the little ear, in a much cheerier tone, 'your voice seems kind. I trust you

may help me.

"Once my ancestry were fine large ears, like

many others that grew with them; but year after year they have been planted in this same soil, and now I can find no food in it, nothing to give me strength. Each year the soil has become less mellow and more unfriendly. Last year I was planted among the clods. I have struggled all summer long, until I am tired out.'

The little ear sobbed and cried again, but its sobs were quickly changed to cries of delight when I told it that only a few days before I had heard its master say he was going to give the soil on which it grew a few years' rest, and plant his corn next spring on fresh, rich land.

“That will be delightful,' shouted the little ear. "Just then a gentle breeze rustled the blades of the stalk on which it grew. The little stalk was clapping its hands for joy.

Then, remembering the past, it added: 'If my master had only allowed me to follow a crop of oats, or wheat, or clover, or grass, I should have grown much faster and should have yielded much more grain. I should have been sounder, too, and the worms would not have hurt me so badly.'

"I did not chide the little ear for its complaint, for I knew its struggle had been great, and its courage sorely tried. I said to it, 'Cheer up, little ear; soon the nipping frost will come and kill the worm