A nature study reader for the Philippine Islands

Preface

Success in Nature Study, more than in most other subjects, must depend upon the work of the teacher. The following chapters are very simple in treatment, and previous training in botany on the part of the teacher is not at all essential, yet their use as a readingtext alone is not the thing expected. The pupils should make almost constant use of a note-book and pencil. The plants described have been chosen chiefly on account of their familiarity and availability throughout the Islands, and the pupils should make their sketches directly from nature. They seem to take considerable pride in the preparation of such a " Nature Study note-book, ,! and it is the best aid to accurate observation. The teacher can easily extend the range of topics studied. The thirty chapters should not be exhausted in less than sixty or seventy lessons.

Fundamental principles have been presented through the medium of familiar examples, rather than as independent topics, simply because it has been the experience of the writer that the subject " teaches better" that way, at least in such very elementary presentation. Thus, the familiar papaya is made the means of acquaintance with the uses of the various parts of the plant, rather vi A NATURE STUDY READER

than to take up the topics "root," "leaves," "flowers," etc., in more abstract form. The banana serves to show methods of reproduction. Through pandan, pollination and the light-relation of leaves are introduced. This scheme is followed throughout. At some points the text is suggestive rather than explicit, for the Filipino pupil in Nature Study classes has shown himself quite capable of seeing the more evident reasons for himself. Numerous questions are asked whose answers, though simple, are to be found outside the covers of the book. It is urged that the teacher shall make the questioning so far as possible of this character.

John Gaylord Coulter.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. — What this Book is About . i

II. — About the Papaya . . . 5

Chapter I What This Book Is About

Nature Study is the study of all things out-of-doors which men have not made. Almost always the first things you see out-ofdoors are the plants. Plants form the natural covering of nearly all the land surfaces of the earth. They are living things, just as men and other animals are living things. Without plants, men and other animals would die. This book tells about some of the common plants of the Philippine Islands.

In every country of the world plants are very important in the life of men, but in no country are they more important than in the Philippine Islands. What do you think would happen to the Filipino people if all the plants died to-morrow ? . How long do you think the people could live ?

Many parts of the world can not be used for the growing of plants which produce food and other valuable products because the soil is not fertile. Regions of the earth whose soil produces very few plants are called desert regions. People who live in such parts of the world must get much of their food from other parts. A country whose chief industry is the growing of plants to produce food for other parts of the world is called an agricultural country. The Philippine archipelago will become one of the best agricultural countries in the world when her people have learned how to make the most out of her rich lands. This is one reason why it is important for you to learn about plants and how they live.

All our food and nearly all our money come from plants. We have food which comes from animals, but the animals get their

food from plants.

So if there were no plants there would be no animals.

It is not so easy to see how nearly all the monev of the Filipino people comes from plants, but it is just as true.

Many countries are rich because they have mines of gold and silver, or mines of copper and iron and coal. Other countries are rich because they have great factories where clothing and shoes, tools and machinery, and many other necessary things are made. The Filipino people do not have many factories and have very few mines. They have instead a country in which many of the most valuable plants in the world can grow, and nearly all their money comes from selling the products of these plants. Much money is paid for the products of all the mines, and much is paid for the products of the factories, but both together are not worth

U

A dry country (Arizona), producing very few plants.

±i

WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUT so much as the products of the plants of the world. Men could Live without factories and they could live without mines, but without plants they would very soon die.

If the Filipino people use their rich land to produce in the best way the many valuable plants which grow here, they will become quite as rich and prosperous as people who have many mines and factories. In other countries it is not possible to grow many of the valuable plants which grow here, and the people of these countries are glad to pay a good price for the plant-products of our fertile islands. So it will be a very good thing for the Filipino people when they have learned how to produce enough plant-products for their own use and much besides to export to other countries.

In these beautiful and fertile islands it is possible to produce more than five times as much as is now produced. At this time (1904) the Filipino people buy from other countries just as much as

they sell to them. It is easy to see that no people can become very rich until they sell more than they buy. When our Filipino farmers

An agricultural country. Reaping- and loading wheat bymachinery in the Western States.

have learned how to get the best crops from their farms, this may become true for the Philippines.

In Nature Study you will gain knowledge which is necessary for a good understanding of the best ways to cultivate plants. The products of plants are made much more valuable when the plants are

cultivated. To cultivate a plant means to help it grow. Rice is a cultivated plant because the farmer works hard to help it grow and produce a good crop of rice seeds. In Nature Study you will learn something of the cultivation of plants. You will learn how plants

ABOUT THE PAPAYA 5

live and how they produce their young. You will learn what are their friends and what are their enemies. When we cultivate plants we help their friends and try to destroy their enemies. You will learn that animals are necessary helpers in the cultivation of plants. You will learn the work which each of the different parts of the plant has to do, and how this work is done.

Plants which men do not cultivate are called wild plants. Many valuable plants grow wild in the Philippine Islands. Cultivated plants grow in the fields and in the gardens. Wild plants grow in the forests and along the shores and in many other places. It would be very hard to find a place in the Philippine Islands where neither wild nor cultivated plants can grow.

Most of the plants which you will study about in this book are cultivated plants, but the very first one you are to study about is a plant which is very common, but which grows without cultivation. It is the papaya.

Chapter II About The Papaya

The papaya is a plant which grows everywhere in the Philippine Islands and has very few enemies. You have already learned that plants have friends and enemies. Thus, the grasshoppers and dry weather are great enemies of the rice.

Since the papaya has very few enemies which it is not able to overcome, it is not necessary for men to cultivate it or help it grow. The fruit of the papaya is good food and it seems to be about as good when the papaya grows wild as when it is cultivated, but the fruit will grow larger when some of the young fruits are cut away to give the others more room.

One of the reasons why the papaya has very few enemies is because it can live in ground which other plants cannot use. It is common to see the papaya growing among rocks where the soil is very poor. For this reason other plants do not try to crowd it out, as the macahia tries to crowd out the rice. The papaya is a very strong and healthy plant. If it were not strong and healthy it could not grow so well where the soil is very poor and dry.

The life of papaya is something like the life of the wild people who live in the mountains of the Philippine Islands. These people take the poor parts of the islands for their homes and so the other people leave them alone, for no one cares to crowd them out of the poor places. In the same way the papaya takes the poor parts of the soil for its home and the other plants do not try to crowd it out.

Every Filipino boy or girl knows that there are two kinds of papaya. What do you call the two kinds ? In English they may be called the man-papaya and the woman-papaya. How can you tell these two kinds of papaya apart? Are the leaves different? Are the stems different ? Are they the same height ? Do they have the same kind of flowers ? Do both kinds produce fruit ?

The papaya is a very good plant for us to study first because it will show many things about the life of plants which are more difficult to see in other plants. The life of one plant is very much like the life of all the rest, so that what we learn by studying the papaya is true also for thousands of other plants.

The papaya shows very plainly the different parts of the flower. Since there are two kinds of papaya flowers we find in each kind of

ABOUT THE PAPAYA

flower just one-half of the parts which we find in a perfect Plants which have just one kind of flower must have all the parts together and we call these flowers perfect flowers. The gumamela, for example, has perfect flowers. But the papaya has half the flower-parts in the flower of the man-papaya and the other half in the flower of the woman-papaya. You can easily see in the pictures the difference between these two kinds of flowers. By looking carefully at the flower of the woman-papaya, and then at the flower of the man-papaya, can you see why one produces fruit and the other does not ?

Have you ever seen a papaya-fruit upon a man-papaya tree ? Sometimes a small fruit is formed at the very end of the flower-branch of the man-papaya.

When you see such a tree,

yOU Should look Carefully The man-papaya.

flower, flowerto see whether the flower at the end of the flower-branch is different from the others. Are the flowers from the woman-papaya borne on branches or on the main stem ?

How soon can you tell whether a young papaya is going to be a man-tree or a woman-tree ? How high does the plant grow before it begins to produce flowers? Some people say that if you cut off the stem of a young man-papaya tree just after it has produced its first flowers it will become a woman-papaya when it grows up again. Do you know whether this is true ?

The stems of the papaya are very different from the stems of other plants. When you break off one of the old leaves of the papaya it leaves a mark on the stem. Have you ever noticed these marks? Can you see them better on the old part of the stem or on the young part at the top ?

Since the leaves of papaya are very large it is not necessary for the plant to have many of them. They are all borne at the top of the stem. The top part of the stem and the leaves form what is called the crown of the plant. What other common plant has very large leaves and only a few of them in a crown at the top of the stem ?

The papaya grows in many other tropical countries besides the Philippine Islands, and everywhere in the tropics its fruit is good to eat. In temperate countries like the United States the papaya may be grown in the gardens if it is protected from the cold of winter, but in these countries it does not produce good fruit.

The parts of a plant which are underground are called roots. Do the roots of the papaya go very deeply into the ground or are they near the surface ? Are the papaya-plants blown down easily by storms ? Do young papaya-plants ever grow up from the bottom of the old papaya-plants like the young bananas which grow from the

STORY OF THE YOUNG PAPAYA bottom of the old banana-plant ? How do you think the young papaya grows? In the next lesson you will read the story of the young papaya.

Chapter III Story Of The Young Papaya

The young papaya grows up from a seed. Do you

know what a seed is ? Inside the ripe fruit of papaya

many small, round bodies may be found. These are the

seeds. When the seeds are scattered in a good place

on the ground they will begin to grow into young

papaya-plants, unless the chickens or

some other enemies find them and eat

them up.

Now a plant must have food just like men and animals. When the papaya is a very young plant indeed it gets its food from inside the seed, but soon the young papaya has grown larger and has eaten up all the food which was stored for it inside the seed. It is like a little chick which has just broken out of the egg-shell. Before the little chick is hatched it finds its food inside the egg, but when it has grown so big that it breaks the shell it must begin to scratch for its own food. So the young papaya must begin to find its own food after it has eaten everything inside the seed.

A young plant coming from the seed, showing root and stem.

The little chick has three parts which help it get its food. It has eyes to look for food, legs to run and get it, and a beak for picking it up.

The young papaya has nothing like eyes and legs and beak, yet it must have food just like the chick. The three parts of the papaya which help it for this purpose we call the root, the stem, and the leaves. Since the papaya can not run around and find its food, you might think that it gets its food in the ground where it grows and that the food is taken up by the roots. But this is not quite true. If the root took up the food of the papaya what do you think the stem and the big leaves would be for ? Why would not the whole plant live underground where the food is ? Xo, the food of the papaya does not come from the ground. It comes from the leaves. You wonder how the leaves get the food of the papaya. Do they get it from the air ? Do they get it from the water which comes up to the leaves from the ground ? No, the leaves do not get the food of the papaya-plant at all.

They make it. The leaves of the papaya are like little workshops and in them the food of the plant is made.

You can see that in this way the young papaya is very different from the young chick. Both must have food, but the chick goes around and finds its own food, while the food of the papaya is made

in its leaves. This is a thing which you should remember very well, for it is a thinor that makes the lives of plants very different

Another young plant, with roots further advanced.

STORY OF THE YOUNG PAPAYA II

from the lives of animals. Eaeh must have food, and what is food for a plant is also food for an animal, but the great difference is that an animal gets its food already made, but a plant makes its own food.

After we have learned that the leaves of the papaya are for making the food of the plant, we should learn what the roots and the stems are for. Let us think of a young papaya which has used up all the food inside the seed. What is it going to do next ? Can the young leaves begin to make food without any help from the roots and the stem ? No, the roots and the stem must help. If we could watch a young papaya as it begins to grow, we would see that the first part of the plant which comes out from the seed is the little root. This is the part of the plant which must begin the work of helping to make food.

If we are going to make a dress or a coat, the first thing we must do is to get the cloth out of which the coat or the dress is to be made. In the same way the young papaya must get the material out of which food is made, and it is the work of the root to get this material. So the young root begins to grow down into the soil and there it finds the things which the leaves know how to make into food. These things are in the water of the soil, and when the root takes up this water it takes into the plant the things which are in the water. You all know that there is salt in the water of the sea. You all know that when you put a lump of sugar into coffee it is soon dissolved in the coffee. In the same way the things which the plant uses in making its food are dissolved in the water of the soil.

While the root of the young papaya has been growing down into the soil, the stem has been growing up into the sunlight. When the stem has grown up a little way the young leaves begin to unfold and spread out in the light. They seem to be trying to

5TVIV 7Z.-.II7.

ight they can. Light is necessary to help the lea^ arselves now what the stem is for. ind the light is ; ng on them r they are ready to begin the work ; : rnjik:::^ :: : :: A'_:t:i;:v :..t root has begun to take up the water of the soil and in this water are the things out of which :.ir -t; r- ;;•:; -i.ikr :::■::. The water passes along the stem until it reaches the young leaves.

Then the little workshops begin their work. All day while the light is shining on them they are busy making food for the "/.::.: In the night the food which is made in the leaves : the young papaya passes into the stem and goes to feed all the hungry parts of the plant.

of these three parts of the

: ling papaya-plant has to do.

Every part of a plant has some

work to do.

- i -.-:i:i -i. It is the work of the root

to hold the plant firmly in the ground and to get the material out of which the leaves can make

ABOUT PAPAYA FLOWERS 13

It is the work of the leaves to make food for the plant. They could not do this work without the sunlight which gives them the power to do it.

The stem has three kinds of work. First, to lift the leaves up into the sunlight. Second, to carry up to the leaves the water which comes from the root. Third, to carry the food which is made in the leaves down to all hungry parts of the plant.

Chapter IV About Papaya Flowers

After the young papaya has learned how to use its roots and steins and leaves, it grows very rapidly. Do you know how long it takes a papaya to grow up from a seed and bear fruit ? There are some trees which take eight or ten years to become as large as a fullgrown papaya, but if you watch a young papaya you may see that it grows several inches in a few weeks.

The food which is made in the leaves is used in making 1 the new parts of the plant. When the papaya has learned how to find its food and how to grow you might think that it has learned all there is for a plant to do. It is true that the young papaya could become a large and an old plant by the work of its stems and its roots and its leaves alone, but there is another very important work which the papaya must do before it dies. The work of the roots and the stems and the leaves is not enough. There is the work of the flowers and the fruit and the seeds yet to be done. The work of roots, stems, and leaves is simply the work of living and is

Flower of the man-papaya.

called nutrition. The work of the flowers, fruit, and seeds is the work of producing new papaya-plants, and is called the work of reproduction. Plants die and plants are born just like animals. Each plant before it dies must produce other young plants, or soon there would be none left in the world.

Now you must learn how the papaya produces its young. You have already learned that the young papayas come from seeds, but you have not learned how the seeds are produced. You may learn this by studying the flowers of papaya, for it is the work of the flowers to produce the fruit and the seeds. The papaya is a good plant to show you the work of flowers, because it has two kinds of flowers. One kind does part of the work and the other kind does the other part. Each kind of flower is quite simple.

First look at the flowers of the man-papaya. They are much smaller than the flowers of the woman-papaya and there are many more of them. On the outside you find five white parts which are like simple little leaves. These five white little leaves form a part of the flower which is called the corolla. Each of the little leaves is called a petal. In the lower part of the flower the petals are united in the form of a tube. Now if you look in the center of a ripe man-flower you will find at the top of this tube several small yellow parts. You can see these yellow parts better if you take a sharp knife and split the tube. Then by looking carefully you will find that there are ten of these small yellow parts. There are five in a ring on the outside and five in a ring on the inside. The outer ones are just twice as long as the

Flower of the man-papaya cut open to show the stamens.

ABOUT PAPAYA FLOWERS inner ones. These small yellow parts of the man-flower are called

stamens. You can see the stamens very well in the picture of the

man-flower.

In the tops of the stamens, when they are ripe, you can find a

little yellow powder, finer than dust. This yellow powder is called

pollen. It is the work of the man-flowers to produce this pollen. You

will learn what the pollen is for when

you study the woman-flower.

The woman-flower is much larger.

It, too, has five petals, but each one is

six or seven times as large as a petal of

a man-flower, and they are not joined

together at the bottom. It is in the

center of the woman-flower that we

find the most important part. This

part is called the pistil. At the top of

the pistil there are five short branches

and each of these little branches is branched again. Can you see this part of the pistil in the picture of the woman-flower ? It is called the stigma. Below the stigma we find a much larger part which is nearly round. If you cut this part open you will find inside of it the very young seeds. This round part is called the ovary and the very young seeds are called ovules. The ovary becomes the fruit. Can you find an ovary in the man-flowers ?

Ovary cut open,

showing stig- Suppose there were no man-papaya plants. Do

ma at the top u ^j^ t h at t h e vary would become a ripe fruit

and very young J . .

seed within. with good seeds inside of it? It the ovary can be-

Flower and young fruit of the woman-papaya.

i6 come a good fruit without the help of the man-flowers, then what are the man-flowers for ? But we find that if there were no man-papaya trees there could be no good fruit and seed. The man-papaya is very important in helping make the fruit and seed.

Now you can understand the purpose of the pollen. The pollen of the man-flowers is necessary to help the woman-flowers produce fruit. The pollen must be brought from the man-flowers to the stigma of the woman-flowers. The stigma is for the purpose of receiving the pollen. After the pollen has reached the stigma, the petals of the woman-flower fall off, and presently the stigma withers up, but the ovary grows larger and larger until at last it becomes the

ripe fruit of papaya. In this ripe fruit are many hundred seeds, each one of which can produce a new plant if it falls in a good place.

You have learned that the pollen must be brought from the man-flower to the woman-flower. But you have not learned how this is done. Can you think how the pollen may be brought from one flower to another ?

You will learn in another lesson how this is done. You will learn that there are little messengers that carry pollen from one flower to another. You will learn that the petals are for the purpose of attracting these messengers. You will learn that these are not messengers for papaya alone, but for many hundreds of other flowers. Nearly all flowering plants must have pollen carried from one flower to another before good fruit and good seeds are produced.

Flower branch of man-papaya, bearing small fruit at the end.

THE USES OF PLANTS TO MAN

Chapter V The Uses Of Plants To Man

The first and most important use of plants to man is for food. Probably no country has more kinds of plants which are used for food than the Philippine Islands. Do you think you could write a list of all the plants which the Filipino people use for food ? Al~

Loading sacks of flour in Oregon.

most any Filipino boy or girl can think of more than a hundred kinds of plants which are used for food.

There are many different ways in which the parts of a plant are used for food. Some parts must be cooked before they are eaten ; other parts may be eaten without cooking. In some food-plants we eat only the seeds, in others we eat the entire fruit, and in a few we eat the leaves as well.

Rice and wheat and corn, or maize, are called cereals. The cereals form the most important group of food-plants in the world. We eat only the seeds of cereals and they need to be cooked. In countries of the temperate regions, like the United States, wheat is the most important food-plant. The seeds of wheat are ground into a fine powder called flour, and from this flour bread is made. Flour is sometimes made from corn and rice in the same way. One of the reasons why food which comes from the seeds of plants is especially valuable is that it may be kept for a long time without spoiling, if it is kept dry. Other plant-foods must be eaten while they are fresh.

In the markets of the United States the fresh plant-foods are called either " fruits " or "vegetables." Sweet plant-foods which are eaten without cooking are called " fruit." The banana, the orange, the chico, the mango, and the lansones are examples of common Philippine " fruit." But in Nature Study we use the word fruit to describe that part of the plant which contains the seeds, no matter whether it is sweet and can be eaten raw or not.

Rice, potatoes, and maize are common examples of Philippine vegetables. They need to be cooked before they are eaten. In Nature Study should we call the potato a fruit ? Do cucumbers and tomatoes contain seed ?

Plants are even more important to animals as food than they are to man. Since animals, especially horses and cattle, are valuable to man, the plants which supply food for these animals may often be sold for a good price. In the United States one of the

THE USES OF PLANTS TO MAN most valuable crops which the farmer produces is the crop of hay or dried grass which the horses and cattle eat in the winter. He also grows much oats and barley for the horses. He feeds corn to his hogs, and this is a reason why the hogs of the United States are very much better than the hogs of the Philippine Islands.