Did you ever think how useful plants are to us? What should we do without corn and wheat to eat, tea and coffee to drink, sugar to make things sweet, timber with which to build our houses, and cotton to clothe our bodies?
For Recitation.—What is a plant? What do plants need? Why do we find the fewest plants in the Frigid zone? What kind of plants grow in the Frigid zone? Name some of the plants of the temperate zones? Where do we find the greatest number of plants, and why? Name some of the plants of the Torrid zone.
LESSON XIV.
ANIMALS.
Preparatory Oral Work.}—Get pupils to talk about animals that they have seen. Which work for man? Which furnish food for us? Which furnish clothing for us? What wild animals have you seen? What did they eat?
Whatever lives, eats, feels, and can move from place to place is called an animal. There are many kinds of animals, and they are very different from one another.
Some animals, like some plants, need a hot climate; others need a cold climate. Different animals belong to different zones.
Very few animals belong to the Frigid zone, but there are some that can live only there.
The walrus and seal find no place so nice as the icy seas of the Frigid zone. They must bathe every day in water so cold that it would freeze us.
In the same cold zone live the huge white bear and the reindeer, an animal that is fond of hunting underneath the snow for his dinner of moss.
In the Temperate zones we find the greatest number of animals that are useful to man. Most of these animals live on plants. The horse, the ox, the cow, the sheep, and the goat are called domestic, because they have been tamed and make their home with man.
Among wild animals are the grizzly bear, the wolf, and the kangaroo.
In the Torrid zone there are more wild animals than anywhere else. That zone is the home of some of the largest, the fiercest, and the most beautiful animals.
In the woods there are huge snakes, lions, and tigers. Monkeys are jumping from tree to tree. Blue and green parrots are screaming from the tree-tops, and scarlet flamingoes are wading in the pools. In the Torrid zone we can ride on the back of an elephant and hunt the tiger.
