e brought up. It
will give occasion for a discussion of the earth and what it contains, the
mountains, formed of rocks and soil, the plants growing on the earth,
and the animals that inhabit it, including man. Let them name the three
kingdoms with some example of each. Which of these kingdoms contain living
things? The words _organic_ and _inorganic_ can be brought in here. An
_organ_ ([Greek: Ergon], meaning work) is any part that does a special
work, as the leaves, the stem of a plant, and the eye, the ear of animals.
An _organism_ is a living being made up of such organs. The inorganic
world contains the mineral kingdom; the organic world includes the
vegetable and animal kingdoms.

One's aim in these lessons should always be to tell the pupils as little
as possible. Try to lead them to think out these things for themselves.

Ask them how plants differ from animals. They will say that plants are
fixed to one place, while animals can move about; that plants have no will
or consciousness, and that animals have. These answers are true when we
compare the higher animals with plants, but the differences become lost as
we descend in the scale and approach the border land where botanist and
zoologist meet on a common ground. Sea-anemones are fixed to the rock on
which they grow, while some of the lower plants are able to move from
place to place, and it is hardly safe to affirm that a jelly-fish is more
conscious of its actions than is a Sensitive Plant, the leaves of which
close when the stem is touched.

There is no real division between animals and plants. We try to classify
the objects about us into groups, according to the closeness of their
relationships, but we must always remember that these hard lines are ours,
not Nature's. We attempt, for purposes of our own convenience, to divide a
whole, which is so bound together that it cannot be separated into parts
that we can confidently place on different sides of a dividing line.

1. _Plants as Food-Producers_.--The chief distinguishing characteristic of
plants is one that the pupils may be led to think out for themselves by
asking them what animals feed upon. To help them with this, ask them what
they had for breakfast. Oatmeal is mentioned, perhaps. This is made from
oats, which is a plant. Coffee and tea, bread made from wheat, potatoes,
etc., all come from plants.[1] Beef, butter and milk come from the cow,
but the cow lives upon grass. The plant, on the other ha