country or in a small town, you will not have to go
many steps, in summer time, before you find the little plant known as
Ribgrass, Plantain, or Whiteman's-foot. If you live in a big city, you
may find it in any grassy place, but will surely see it, as soon as you
reach the suburbs. It grows on the ground, wherever it can see the sun,
and is easily known by the strong ribs, each with a string in it when
you pull the leaf apart. The Indians call it Whiteman's-foot, not
because it is broad and flat, but because it came from Europe with the
white man; it springs up wherever he sets his foot, and it has spread
over all America. Gardeners think it a troublesome weed; but the birds
love its seed; canary birds delight in it; and each plant of the
Ribgrass may grow many thousands of seeds in a summer.

How many? Let us see! Take a seed-stalk of the Plantain and you will
find it thickly set with little cups, as in the drawing. Open one of
these cups, and you find in it five seeds. Count the cups; there are two
hundred on this stalk, each with about five seeds, that is, one thousand
seeds; but the plant has five or more seed-stalks, some have more (one
before me now has seventeen), but suppose it has only ten; then there
are 10,000 seeds each summer from one little plant. Each seed can grow
up into a new plant; and, if each plant were as far from the next as you
can step, the little ones in a row the following summer would reach for
nearly six miles; that is, from the City Hall to the end of Central
Park, New York.[B]

[Illustration: The Ribgrass]

[Illustration: Jack-in-the-Pulpit]

On the third year if all had the full number of seed, and all the seed
grew into plants, there would be enough to go more than twice round the
world. No wonder it has spread all over the country.

TALE 34

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Once upon a time there was a missionary named the Rev. John T. Arum, who
set out to preach to the Indians. He had a good heart but a bitter,
biting tongue. He had no respect for the laws of the Indians, so they
killed him, and buried him in the woods. But out of his grave came a new
and wonderful plant, shaped like a pulpit, and right in the middle of
it, as usual, was the Reverend Jack hard at it, preaching away.

If you dig down under the pulpit you will find the preacher's body, or
his heart, in the form of a round root. Taste it and you will believe
that the preacher had a terribly biting tongue, but treat it pro