Do you now think that you should like to learn about plants? Here are a few facts to begin with. Plants are so different in size that they are among the largest and the smallest things in the world. The great trees in California are so large that a hundred people can stand upon one stump. They are as tall as the tallest towers in the world. Twenty men on horses can ride into the hollow of one tree. Other very great trees are found in other parts of the world.[3] The largest trees are in Australia and California. In other places there are also very big trees. In New Jersey I once saw a large, hollow tree, in which a goat lived. He was a big goat. He jumped about and slept inside the tree. When the children called him he came out to draw their cart. In another hollow tree I saw a very nice play-house. While some plants are so large, others are very small. There is a little pond weed, which, root and all, is not so big as a grain of rice. Other plants are as small as pin heads. Others are so small that you cannot see them without a microscope. Plants differ as much in age as in size. Some grow and die in a few hours, or a day. Others live only a year. Some trees are said to live three thousand years. There are plants that have flowers, and plants that never have any flowers. There are plants that grow from the outside in, other plants grow from the inside out.[4] If you like plants, and some day study Botany, you will find out about all these things. FOOTNOTES: [1] See Nature Reader, No. 2, on these subjects. [2] That which we call _mould_ upon such substances is a form of vegetable life. [3] The oldest and largest known tree is a chestnut at the foot of Mount Etna. The trunk is 212 feet in girth. [4] Gray’s “How Plants Grow,” pp. 41, 42, will here aid the teacher. LESSON III. A LOOK AT A PLANT. Plants are divided into two great classes. One class contains all plants with flowers. The other class contains plants that have no flowers. The plants with flowers are the ones which you like best. They are of the most interest to you. Besides this, they are the easiest to learn about. [Illustration: A CHILD OF THE GARDEN.] A piece of moss is a flowerless plant. What you call a “simple bit of moss,” would be harder to learn about than a whole garden full of lilies and roses. The plants with flowers are the most perfect plants. They are also the most beautiful, and the most useful. A perfect plant has six parts for you to notice: 1, the root; 2, the stem; 3, leaves; 4, blossoms (the blossom is made of several parts); 5, a bag or box for seeds; 6, seeds. Here are all those parts shown in our picture of a pea-vine. You see our pea-vine has something else. It has little curly things with which to climb. They are its hands for taking hold of objects. They are leaves, buds, or twigs, that have changed. They are now tendrils. They grew slim, and long, and curly, as the plant had need of them for climbing.