Part 1

Produced by David E. Brown and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from scans of public domain works at The National Library of Australia.)

HOW DOES A TREE GROW?

BOTANY FOR YOUNG AUSTRALIANS.

BY JAMES BONWICK,

Sub-Inspector of Denominational Schools, Victoria, Author of “Geography of Australia and New Zealand,” &c. &c.

JAMES J. BLUNDELL & Co., MELBOURNE; SANDS & KENNY, SYDNEY.

1857.

PREFACE.

At the request of several Teachers, I have commenced a Shilling Series of School Books, chiefly to be confined to subjects of Colonial History and Popular Sciences.

The form of dialogue has been adopted with the “Botany for Young Australians,” from a belief that the sympathies of our young friends will be excited on behalf of the juvenile questioner, and their interest thus maintained in the study of the sciences.

A dialogue upon Astronomy will shortly follow; being a conversation between a father and his son, coming out to Australia, from Old England.

JAMES BONWICK.

Melbourne, April 17, 1857.

HOW A TREE GROWS IN AUSTRALIA.

Willie was a fine rosy-faced boy of our southern colony. Though not eight years of age, he was as healthy and merry a lad as ever climbed up a Gum tree, picked up manna, or rode in a bullock dray.

His father had once occupied a good position in Old England; but the uncertainties and losses of business, and the constant struggle to uphold a respectable appearance with decreasing means, became so burdensome to his mind, that his spirits failed, and his energies sunk. His attention was directed to Australia, the land of mutton and corn, the home of health and plenty. Gathering up the wreck of the past, he left the country of taxation and paupers, and established himself on a small farm in Port Phillip.

The young hero of our story had been a year or two in the colony. It so happened he had a piece of land of his own, in which he proudly exhibited some rising cabbages, a few peas, and a flower or two. His father had given him a rose tree, which was the reigning beauty of the bed. It was upon the occasion of his parent’s visit to the garden, that the following dialogue took place:--

Look, father, and see how my rose tree has grown.

Indeed it has, Willie. Can you tell me what has made it grow?

The sun and the rain, I suppose.

Do you remember, when we got tired of the old slab hut, and set about building this brick cottage, that you noticed it getting higher and higher every day!

Yes, that was because more bricks and wood were used.

Then, if your tree increases in size, there surely must be something added on continually: do you think the sun and rain do this?

Well, I never thought about it, father; but I should like to know why it does grow.

Can you tell me, Willie, what a plum pudding is made of?

Yes, that I can. There is the flour, the suet, the raisins, and the cold water. All these are mixed together.

Then let us see of what our rose tree is made.

I don’t think it so easy to tell that as to reckon up the articles in a pudding.