tem
continues to lengthen, and soon another compound leaf appears. Thus the
stem lengthens and leaves keep coming, the little growing tip at the end
of the stem always pushing upward.

Very soon the stem becomes too long and slender to stand upright. Then
it does a strange thing. It circles about as though in search of
something. It moves very slowly, but if you notice which way it is
pointing in the morning, and again at noon, and again at night, you will
see that it has changed its position. Why does it do this? It wishes to
twine about a support, and will continue circling about until it finds
one. If there is none, the slender stem, unable to stand upright as it
lengthens, will in time bend to one side or even lie on the ground; but
the end still continues to circle about, and when at last it touches a
stick or the stem of another plant or anything else about which it can
twine, it continues its circling motion about the new support, and the
vine as it lengthens finally becomes twined about it.

How does the food which the plant takes from the earth and the air find
its way to the different parts of the plant to nourish them?

The plant food is in a liquid form called sap, which runs through
channels in the roots and stems and leaves, and is thus carried to all
parts of the plant. To a certain extent it is like the blood of animals,
which finds its way all through the body and supplies food to the
tissues.

The plant is alive; it eats, it breathes; sometimes it even moves. It
breathes the same air that we do, only it takes it in through tiny pores
in the leaves. Eating and breathing, the plant continues to grow, leaf
after leaf unfolding. At last, in the axil of one of the leaves there
comes a little bud that does not unfold into a leaf but into a flower.

The appearance of this first blossom on the plant the child has himself
raised from the seed will be watched with eagerness, and its advent can
be made a subject of general pleasure and notice in the home. The
child's pleasure in his flower will be greatly increased if he finds
that others are also watching and enjoying it.

Here, too, is a chance to develop a certain respect or reverence for the
beautiful and fragile flower. It is not to be picked. We are to leave
this flower and see what becomes of it. If we pick it, it will soon
wither and die. If we leave it where it is, it will continue to grow,
and something very interesting will happen. After a few da