as you could draw lemonade through
a straw, for every root is supplied with many hair tubes that serve as
straws. These hair tubes often are so small we could not see them
without a microscope, but it is through these tiny tubes the plant
receives nearly all the water it uses.

Other members of the family, the leaves, are kept busy, for they must do
the breathing for the plant, as well as digest the food. You know water
is never quite free from mineral matter, so when the roots draw up the
water from the ground, they also draw up some mineral food for the plant
which is dissolved in the water. Before the plant can make use of this
food, it must be digested by the leaves, much the same as your stomach
must digest the food you eat. That is, it must change it into another
form. But in order that the leaves may do this, they must have plenty
of chlorophyll, which is the green coloring matter of the leaves. This
chlorophyll will grow in the leaves if they have plenty of sunlight, and
if it does not grow the leaves will not be able to digest the food and
the plant will starve. So you see how necessary it is for plants to have
plenty of sunshine, and why they lose their green color and then die if
they are kept away from the light. They really are starved to death.

* * * * *

Flowers are words
Which even a babe may understand.

Bishop Coxe.

* * * * *

CHAPTER II

THE FLOWER BABIES

The flower itself has many parts, just as there are many parts to your
body. When the flower is a little bud, or baby, rocked by the breezes,
it is closely wrapped in a little green cloak. We call this cloak the
calyx, because when it opens it looks like a cup, and the word calyx
means cup. After the bud is grown, it opens its cloak and throws it
back. Then we see the pretty dress underneath. We call this dress the
corolla. Sometimes it is all in one piece, but often it is divided into
several leaf-like parts which we call petals.

If we look within the dress or corolla, we find the real body of
the flower, which is called the pistil. Its shape varies greatly in
different plants, but it always consists of two or three distinct parts.
One of these is the cradle for the seeds, and is called the ovary.
At one end of the ovary is usually a little tube leading down into it.
This tube is called the style, and the opening at the other end is
called the stigm