NATURE STUDY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2690, 4 October 1905, Page 67

NATURE STUDY.

ANEMONES. Oh! wbat pretty things are these, That we have just now found? Blue and white anemones Emerging from, the ground! 3Lefc me see! What can we team? We'll trouble them with questions. How can you the Spring discern, And v.-ho are your relations? Tou are classed Dicotyledones, And sub-class angiospernia. "At these words little Tommy groans And stamps on terra firnia. Your sisters are white buttercups 1 Of our grand snow-capped mountains, Hiding close in rocky nooks, Or near the rippling f«tut«u»k

Your crowsfoot leaves hold in their folds The stems of sweetest flowers, As nosegay in a maiden's hold, Or fairies in their bowers. How do you turn the pearly dew To bitter aciid juic<"=? And these black stamens, not a few, What are their several uses? The honey bee : What doth he &ay When he surveys Ihy treasure? Doth he tell thee the time of day, Or yield thee any pleasure? How is it that your loots are white, Your leaves are green, and you Have made up out of liquid light A flower of lovely blue? How do your mates extract their hues Of white, or mauve, or redj And wrap them up in cells to use From out one garden bed? What is thy protoplasmic life, That restless fluid action, That constant force with death at strife, As strong at earth's attraction? How is it that y&ar stem is round, And iniooth, and strong, and even? Can you distinguish liglit and sound With petals safely hidden? You cannot think, and yet you feel. You know, but cannot speak. Your slightest wound you safely heal ; You talk with signs, though w-eak? You know not laws, yet you obey The 'aws that God lias granted: To grow and flower in light of day, And honour him that planted.

J. T. B.