little mouths through which it is taking in food for the plant. It works just as truly as the little busy bee; just as truly as the ant; just as truly as the kingfisher, when it darts down upon a sleeping trout in a mountain stream. When night comes this plant only while the rests. It can eat light falls plant at night. Its leaves are folded together, and then its leaf stem drops its drowsy head, like a sleepy child. Now the plant is not feeding. It is busy with growth. The food gathered in the light is slowly worked into tissue, and the plant is growing, just as grows when it is asleep. a child Have you ever watched a crocus on a cloudy day? The crocus closes up just as soon as a cloud covers the sun, and opens in a few minutes after the sun begins to shine again. On an April day one may see the crocus open and close half a dozen times. What does this mean to you? CATCHFLY If you stand under an electric light on a warm summer evening you will find the air alive with insects of all sorts. Many more insects feed at night than at noon. Some plants feed upon insects. Such plants, of course, sleep when the insects sleep and waken up when the insects are flying. Plants of this kind sleep by day and eat by night. These night-blooming plants are pure white and very fragrant. They are white because they are awake at night. If they were day-workers they would need bright colors to draw insects to them. CATCH FLY ASLEEP They are very fragrant, because the night insects are drawn to them by smell and not by sight. Their fragrance is the bait they throw out to catch food. The Catchfly is a night-blooming plant. It feeds upon a peculiar moth that flies by night. This moth also carries the pollen of the Catchfly to other plants of the same kind and in this way helps to reproduce the plant. Without the moth there could be no seed on the plant. A study of the habits of plants will teach · many valuable lessons. rival bé lať'ed åft er-maths sătîn vagrant mísers XLV.-OCTOBER'S BRIGHT BLUE WEATHER.* O suns and skies and clouds of June, Ye cannot rival for one hour When loud the bumble-bee makes haste, And lanes with grapes are fragrant ; When Gentians roll their fringes tight And chestnuts fall from satin burrs When on the ground red apples lie When all the lovely wayside things Their white-winged seeds are sowing, And in the fields, still green and fair, Late aftermaths are growing; When springs run low, and on the brooks, In idle golden freighting, Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush Of woods, for winter waiting; When comrades seek sweet country haunts And count like misers hour by hour, O suns and skies and flowers of June, săl'a ry as sǎs'si na těd gen er a'tions nim'ble XLVI.-LEE'S STOCKING-LOOM. In olden times women sat for hours knitting stockings. You may have seen an old grandmother sitting before the fire on a long winter evening with needles and yarn busily engaged at the task of making stockings. |