The common currant bushes, blackberry bushes, and rose bushes which we see in gardens, are shrubs.

So also are grape-vines, honeysuckles, ivy, and all other creeping vines.  These are called climbing plants, because little tendrils or claspers which grow out of their branches, wind around and fasten themselves to any thing in their way.

Trees are the largest and strongest of all plants.

They have woody stems or trunks, and branches.  These branches do not, as in shrubs, start close to the ground, but at some distance above, from which height they extend in different directions.

It is difficult to believe that some of the large trees we see, sprung from small seeds; yet it is true that all trees started in this manner.

The seeds are scattered about by birds and tempests, and falling on the soft ground, where they become covered with, leaves and earth, they take root and grow.

Thus the little acorn sprouts, and from it springs the sturdy oak, which is not only the noblest of trees, but lives hundreds of years.

The trunks and branches of trees are protected by a covering called bark.  This bark is thicker near the base or root of the tree than it is higher up among the branches.

On some trees, the bark is very rough and shaggy looking, as on the oak, ash, walnut, and pine; on others, the bark is smooth, as on the beech, apple, and birch.

Some trees live for only a few years, rapidly reaching their full growth, and rapidly decaying.  The peach-tree is one of this kind.

Other trees live to a great age.  An elm-tree has been known to live for three hundred years; a chestnut-tree, six hundred years; and oaks, eight hundred years.

The baobab-tree of Africa lives to be many hundred years old.  There is a yew-tree in England that is known to be over two thousand years old.

The “big trees” of California are the largest in the world, although not of so great an age as some that have been mentioned.  The tallest of these trees that has yet been discovered, measures over three hundred and fifty feet in height, and the distance around it near the ground is almost one hundred feet.  The age of this tree must be between one thousand five hundred and two thousand years.

* * * * *

Directions for Reading.—­Let, pupils pronounce in concert and singly, the following words:  corn, stalks, important, form, tall, walnut, horses.

In the fifth paragraph on page 199, why are some and others emphatic?[12]

Mark inflections of oak, ash, walnut, and pine; and of beech, apple, and birch.

* * * * *

Language Lesson.—­Place dis before each of the following words, and then give the meaning of each of the words so formed.

    appear covered able like believe