THE OWL AND THE PUSSY-CAT

Otago Witness, Volume 23, Issue 2684, 23 August 1905, Page 81

THE OWL AND THE PUSSY-CAT

This is taken from one of the Victorian School Papers for August. It is a happy little piece of nonsense : — The Owl and the Pussy Cat went to sea In a beautiful pea-green boat; They took some honey, and plenty of money, Wrapped up in a five-pound note, Pound-note. Wrapped up in a five-pound note. The Owl looked up to the stars above, And sang to a small guitar, " O lovely Pussy, O Pussj', my love', What a' beautiful pussy you are, sTou are, What a beautiful pussy you are!" Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl, How charmingly sweet you sing! Oh! let us be married; too long we have tarried : But what shall we do for a sing? A ring, But what shall we do for a ring? They sailed away, for a year and a day, To the land where the bong-tree grows; And there' m the wood^ a Piggy"-wig stood, With a ring at the end of his nose, His nose, With a ring at the end of his nose. " Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling Your ring?" .Said the Piggy, "I will." So they took it away, and weie married next day By tlie Turkey who lives on the Mil, The lull, By the Turkey who lives on the hill. They dined on mince, and slices of quince, .Which they ate with a, runoible spoon; And, hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, They danced by the light of the moon, The moon, They danced by the light of the moon. Edwabd Leab. THE LEAF AS A FEEDING ORGAN. With .the advent of spring the study of a few leaves will be interesting. Just for curiosity see how many shapes you c*n gather. Note tips, bars, edges, veining, etb. I think many of you will be astonished with the variety and beauty. You might notice, too, how they are arranged on the stalks. Perhaps the following will cause you to wan* .to know more about leaves. It is taken from the Education Gazette and Teachers' Aid, published in Victoria., and will bs continued next week: — The Leaf as a Feeding Ohgan. Each child should • have a green leaf. A fresh marsh-mallow leaf is very suitable. " Has anyone discovered wliy the air dees not get too much burnfc-up charcoal in ii?" " The wind blows it away," " Plants take it," are, perhaps, amongst the answers given. "Think of a plant; take a fruit— an appje ; bake it ; forgot it. What will happen?" "It rop-s black." " What is the black?" "Charcoal. So a fruit is made up partly of charcoal- In the same way get from the children that ea.oh other part of a tree — a root, a stem, a flower, and a leaf will also go black, that is, there is charcoal in every paxt of a plant. "Where does the plant get the charcoal?" Iv gets none from the soil. Even if charcoal is present in the soil where there has been a fire, the plant cannot take it. So all the charcoal in plants came out of th© air. Dwell on this. All the millions and millions of .tons of carbon in coal and wood were one© floating about in the air in the form of "burnt-up charcoal." To show there is some in the air now, examine a saucer of lim&water that you put ready at the beginning of the lesson. Notice a white scum on the .top of the limewater. The limewater where it is in contact with the air is becoming milky. Another question for to-day is — " What is the baby plant .-Toing so that it will be able to get its own living when ail the food in the seed has gone." " Growing leaves at one end and roots at lih© other." " To-day we shall think about the leaf. Why does a plant get a leaf rather than a mouth? A mouth would not be much good' if it could not get food to put into it. A mouth like yours would be of no use to the plant. The leaf, perhaps, helps it to get food." " We must examine the leaf to see what is in it. Hold it between your eye and the window. What do you see?" "Veins." "Who can see veins? Look at your hand. "Who see 3 veins? Wha.t is in the veins?" "Blood." "How do you know?" "If you cuit one, Wood flows out." " Look at any finger. My finger needed breakfast this morning and needed air, tco. The blood took down food and air; so it was like .th© butcher and grocer bringing round what was wanted. The parts of the finger took what they wanted, and put .the burntup stuff, rubbish, etc., into the blood, and the blood took it away. So the blood was like the rubbdsh man, taking away th© used up or worn out stuff. So, in my finger there are two sets of vessels (veins with the lower classes, one set to take down blood to the finger, and anc.ther set to take- blood away from the finger. Look at the leaf again. In the veins are two sets of pipes — one set takes stuff to the leaf, another takes stuff away." " Caa you see anything in the leaf beside* veinsJ" "Ribs." " Jhmk of an umbrella.

Why lias tho umbrella ribs?" "To spread it out." "Why has the leaf ribs?" "Can you s-ec anying' ehe?" I have had cl-ildren hairs, blue, clots, red clots, mimtte cracks, and all kinds of unimportant tl" jngs; but vsry, very few will c^-or tell you there is green. Nature-study wa : nocde ' to make children depend on tho real ond the obvious and not Icol: for the unit al and tho hidden as education in th-e past seems to have forced children to do. Tho second thing they should see in the leaf is- green stutf. Most children .think this is &o obvious that it is not worth talking about. But th/> mobt abundant substances should always be dealt with before the loss common especially in .this case where th-e green .is the impclrtant thing". The veins are whitt. In between the ends of the fine veins are minute- patches of green. Dwell on tins green — tho most important thing in the plaat for us. Speaking generally, plants are food-producer* ; animals aic fcodconsumers. All our food is prepared by this green. In face, if it were not for this green, we should have no food, no fuel, and no clothes. Think of our food. Trace bread back to the wheat plant ; porridge to tho oat plant, a mutton chop ,to th© green grass. It is the most wonderful thing for us. The green prepares all our food, so we must have a name for it. Since it is generally found in the leaves onJy, on highe ■ plants, - .ye can call it "leaf green." It is not always ..restricted to tlie leaf. It is present in the stem in the broad bean and other plant - Look at the leaf again; see this green clearly. The two important things in the leaf are — "leaf green' I—the1 — the food manufacturer — and th© veins conveying the raw stuff to this wonderful cook, and taking the manufactured food away to the parts of the plain, where it is needed or stored. The arrangement of the veins, the edges of th© leaves, are non-ef.sen.tial and unimportant to us at present. They will receive no thought at all now. The common green is the essential.