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MICROECONOMICS
N. GREGORY MANKIW
AND MARK P. TAYLOR
FIFTH EDITION
Australia • Brazil • Mexico • Singapore • United Kingdom • United States
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SOURCES iii
BRIEF CONTENTS
About the authors vii part 4 Firm behaviour and market

Preface viii structures 231
Acknowledgements xi
10 Firms’ production decisions 231
11 Market structures I: Monopoly 242
PART 1 Introduction to economics 1 12 Market structures II: Monopolistic competition 267
1 What is economics? 1 13 Market structures III: Oligopoly 280
2 Thinking like an economist 15 14 Market structures IV: Contestable markets 304
PART 2 The theory of competitive markets 33 part 5 Factor markets 315
3 The market forces of supply and demand 33 15 The economics of factor markets 315
4 Background to demand: Consumer choices 74
5 Background to supply: Firms in competitive part 6 Inequality 347
markets 105
16 Income inequality and poverty 347
6 Consumers, producers and the efficiency
of markets 141
part 7 Trade 367
17 Interdependence and the gains from trade 367
PART 3 Interventions in markets 159
7 Supply, demand and government policies 159
8 Public goods, common resources and merit part 8 Heterodox economics 401
goods 189 18 Information and behavioural economics 401
9 Market failure and externalities 204 19 Heterodox theories in economics 416
iii
CONTENTS
About the authors vii 4 Background to demand: Consumer

Preface viii choices 74
Acknowledgements xi
The standard economic model 74
The budget constraint: What the consumer
can afford 76
Preferences: What the consumer wants 80
PART 1 Optimization: What the consumer chooses 86
Introduction to Economics 1 Conclusion: Do people really behave this way? 98
Behavioural approaches to consumer
behaviour 98
1 What is economics? 1
The economy and economic systems 1 5 Background to supply: Firms in
How people make decisions 3 competitive markets 105
How people interact 6
The costs of production 105
How the economy as a whole works 9
Production and costs 106
The various measures of cost 109
2 Thinking like an economist 15
Costs in the short run and in the long run 115
Introduction 15 Summary 116
Economic methodology 15 Returns to scale 117
Schools of thought 25 What is a competitive market? 123
The economist as policy advisor 26 Profit maximization and the competitive firm’s
Why economists disagree 27 supply curve 125
The supply curve in a competitive market 132
Conclusion: Behind the supply curve 137
PART 2 6 Consumers, producers and the efficiency

The Theory of Competitive of markets 141
Consumer surplus 141
Markets 33 Producer surplus 146
Market efficiency 150
3 The market forces of supply and
demand 33
The assumptions of the competitive market
model 33 PART 3
Demand 35 Interventions in Markets 159
Shifts versus movements along the demand
curve 37
Supply 40 7 Supply, demand and government
Supply and demand together 44 policies 159
Prices as signals 47 Controls on prices 159
Analyzing changes in equilibrium 48 Taxes 163
Elasticity 53 Subsidies 170
The price elasticity of demand 53 The tax system 171
Other demand elasticities 60 The deadweight loss of taxation 172
Price elasticity of supply 62 Administrative burden 178
Applications of supply and demand The design of the tax system 179
elasticity 67 Taxes and equity 181
iv
CONTENTS v
8 Public goods, common resources and 14 Market structures IV: Contestable

merit goods 189 markets 304
The different kinds of goods 189 The nature of contestable markets 304
Public goods 190 The limitations of contestability 308
Common resources 194 Summary 310
Merit goods 197
Conclusion 199
9 Market failure and externalities 204 PART 5

Market failure 204 Factor Markets 315
Externalities 204
Externalities and market inefficiency 206 15 The economics of factor markets 315
Private solutions to externalities 210
The marginal product theory of
Public policies towards externalities 213
distribution 315
Public/private policies towards externalities 216
The demand for labour 315
Government failure 220
The supply of labour 319
Conclusion 225
Equilibrium in the labour market 323
Other theories of the labour market 325
Marxist labour theory 325
PART 4 Feminist economics and the labour market 326
Firm Behaviour and Market Monopsony 327
Structures 231 Wage differentials 329
The economics of discrimination 334
The other factors of production: Land and
10 Firms’ production decisions 231 capital 337
Isoquants and isocosts 231 Economic rent 340
The least-cost input combination 236 Conclusion 341
Conclusion 238
11 Market structures I: monopoly 242

Imperfect competition 242
PART 6
Why monopolies arise 243 Inequality 347
How monopolies make production
and pricing decisions 247
16 Income inequality and poverty 347
The welfare cost of monopoly 252
Price discrimination 254 The measurement of inequality 348
Public policy towards monopolies 258 The political philosophy of redistributing
Conclusion: the prevalence of monopoly 261 income 355
Policies to reduce poverty 359
Conclusion 362
12 Market structures II: monopolistic
competition 267
Competition with differentiated products 268
Advertising and branding 272 PART 7
Conclusion 276
Trade 367
13 Market structures III: oligopoly 280
Characteristics of oligopoly 280 17 Interdependence and the gains from
Game theory and the economics of trade 367
cooperation 284 The production possibilities frontier 367
Entry barriers in oligopoly 296 International trade 372
Public policy towards oligopolies 297 The principle of comparative advantage 376
Conclusion 299 The determinants of trade 379
vi CONTENTS
The winners and losers from trade 380 Behavioural economics 408
Restrictions on trade 384 Conclusion 412
Criticisms of comparative advantage theory 391
Other theories of international trade 392
19 Heterodox theories in economics 416
Conclusion 396
Introduction 416
Institutional economics 419
PART 8 Feminist economics 422
Complexity economics 425
Heterodox Economics 401 Conclusion 428
18 Information and behavioural Glossary 432

economics 401 Index 438
Principal and agent 401 Credits 447
Asymmetric information 402 List of formulae 448
About the Authors
AUTHORS
N. GREGORY MANKIW is the Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics at Harvard University. As a student,
he studied economics at Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a teacher he
has taught macroeconomics, microeconomics, statistics and principles of economics. Professor Mankiw is a
prolific writer and a regular participant in academic and policy debates. In addition to his teaching, research and
writing, Professor Mankiw has been a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and
an advisor to the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston and New York and the Congressional Budget Office. From
2003 to 2005, he served as chairman of the US President’s Council of Economic Advisors and was an advisor
to presidential candidate Mitt Romney during the 2012 US presidential election.
MARK P. TAYLOR is Dean of John M Olin Business School at Washington University, US, and was pre-
viously Dean of Warwick Business School at the University of Warwick, UK. He obtained his first degree in
philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University and his Master’s degree in economics from London
University, from where he also holds a doctorate in economics and international finance. Professor Taylor has
taught economics and finance at various universities (including Oxford, Warwick and New York) and at vari-
ous levels (including principles courses, advanced undergraduate and advanced postgraduate courses). He
has also worked as a senior economist at the International Monetary Fund and at the Bank of England and,
before becoming Dean of Warwick Business School, was a managing director at BlackRock, the world’s largest
financial asset manager, where he worked on international asset allocation based on macroeconomic analysis.
His research has been extensively published in scholarly journals and he is today one of the most highly cited
economists in the world. He has also been a member of the Academic Advisory Group of the Bank of England
Fair and Effective Markets Review.
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
ANDREW ASHWIN has over 20 years’ experience as a teacher of economics. He has an MBA from the
University of Hull and a PhD in assessment and the notion of threshold concepts in economics from the
University of Leicester. Andrew is an experienced author, writing a number of texts for students at different
levels, and journal publications related to his PhD research as well as working on the development of online
learning materials at the University of Bristol’s Institute of Learning and Research Technologies. Andrew was
Chair of Examiners for a major awarding body for business and economics in England and is a subject specialist
consultant in economics for the UK regulator, Ofqual. Andrew has a keen interest in assessment and learning in
economics and has received accreditation as a Chartered Assessor with the Chartered Institute of Educational
Assessors. He has also edited the journal of the Economics, Business and Enterprise Association.
vii
Preface
T his fifth edition of Microeconomics reflects the way in which the discipline is evolving. Academics across
the UK and Europe are engaged in a lively debate about the future direction of the subject both in the way
it is taught at the undergraduate level and how research into developing new knowledge should be conducted.
This new edition seeks to reflect some of this debate whilst retaining a familiar look and structure. Readers
should note that this edition adapts Greg Mankiw’s best-selling US undergraduate Principles of Economics
text to reflect the needs of students and instructors in the UK and European market. As each new edition is
written, the adaptation evolves and develops an identity distinct from the original US edition on which it is based.
Responsibility for the UK and European edition lies with Cengage EMEA. Comments and feedback on this
edition, therefore, should be addressed to the editorial team at Cengage EMEA for passing on to the authors via
EMEAMankiw@cengage.com
We have aimed to retain the lively, engaging writing style and to continue to have the novice economics
student in mind. The use of examples and the Case Studies and In the News articles help to provide some
context to the theory and discussion throughout the text. The In the News articles are accompanied by ques-
tions which have been written to encourage you to think independently, to question, and to be critical of both
received wisdom and what you read and hear about economic issues.
A complementary digital resource, Maths for Economics: A Companion to Mankiw and Taylor Economics
has been produced alongside and seeks to develop further some of the mathematical elements of the text.
MindTap provides a wealth of resources and support for the teaching and learning of economics at the under-
graduate level and includes assignable assessment tasks, videos, case studies and more to provide everything
needed for undergraduate study in one place. Welcome to the wonderful world of economics – learn to think
like an economist and a whole new world will open up to you.
viii
Fit your coursework
into your hectic life.
Make the most of your time by learning
your way. Access the resources you need
to succeed wherever, whenever.
Study with digital flashcards, listen to audio

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ix
x PART 1 Introduction to economics
Teaching & learning

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Acknowledgements
Michael Barrow, University of Sussex, UK Arie Kroon, Utrecht Hogeschool, The Netherlands
Brian Bell, London School of Economics, UK Jassodra Maharaj, University of East London, UK
Keith Bender, The University of Aberdeen, UK Paul Melessen, Hogeschool van Amsterdam, The
Thomas Braeuninger, University of Mannheim, Netherlands
Germany Kristian Nielsen, Aalborg University, Denmark
Klaas De Brucker, Vlekho Business School, Belgium Jørn Rattsø, Norwegian University of Science &
David Duffy, Ulster University, Northern Ireland Technology, Norway
Eleanor Denny, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland Frédéric Robert-Nicoud, University of Geneva,
Anna Maria Fiori, IESEG School of Management, Switzerland
France Jack Rogers, University of Exeter, UK
Darragh Flannery, University of Limerick, Ireland Erich Ruppert, Hochschule Aschaffenburg,
Gaia Garino, University of Leicester, UK Germany
Chris Grammenos, American College of Thessaloniki, Noel Russell, University of Manchester, UK
Greece Reto Schleiniger, Zürich University of Applied
Getinet Haile, University of Nottingham, UK Sciences, Switzerland
Christoph Harff, Hamm Hochschule, Germany Edward Shinnick, University College Cork, Ireland
Luc Hens, Vrije University, Belgium Munacinga Simatele, University of Hertfordshire, UK
Giancarlo Ianulardo, University of Exeter, UK Robert Simmons, University of Lancaster, UK
William Jackson, University of York, UK Alison Sinclair, University of Nottingham, UK
Colin Jennings, King’s College London, UK Mouna Thiele, Hochschule Düsseldorf, Germany
Sarah Louise Jewell, University of Reading, UK Nikos Tzivanakis, Coventry London Campus, UK
Geraint Johnes, Lancaster University, UK Jovan Vojnovic, Edinburgh University, UK
DIGITAL RESOURCES
The publisher also wishes to thank Ramesh Sangaralingham (University of Oxford), Brian Henry (INSEAD,
France), Giancarlo Ianulardo (University of Exeter), David Duffy (Ulster University) and Neil Reaich for their
contributions to the digital resources.
xi
PART 1
Introduction
to Economics
1 What Is Economics?
The Economy and Economic Systems

Every day, billions of people around the world make decisions. They make decisions about provid-
ing for the fundamentals in life such as food, clothing and shelter and how they use non-work time
for leisure and domestic tasks. Making these decisions involves interaction with other people, with
governments and business organizations. At any time, individuals could be mothers, fathers, sons,
daughters, carers, employers, employees, houseworkers, producers, consumers, savers, taxpayers
or benefit recipients. Many, but not all, of these interactions are related to some sort of exchange,
normally with the use of a medium of exchange such as money, and sometimes to a direct exchange
of services. Individuals purchase goods and services for final consumption and provide the inputs into
production – land, labour and capital. We refer to these individuals collectively as ‘households’. The
organizations which buy these factors and use them to produce goods and services are referred to
collectively as ‘firms’.
The amount of interaction between households and firms – the amount of buying and selling which
takes place – represents the level of economic activity. The more buying and selling there are, the higher
the level of economic activity. Households and firms engaging in production and exchange in a particular
geographic region are together referred to as the economy.
economic activity how much buying and selling goes on in the economy over a period of time
economy all the production and exchange activities that take place
Economics studies the interactions between households and firms in relation to exchange and the
many decisions which are made in so doing. It also covers situations where some output is produced
without the receipt of an income, such as the work done by unpaid carers and homemakers. It explores
how people make a living; how resources are allocated among the many different uses they could be put
to; and the way in which our activities influence not only our own well-being but also that of others and
the environment.
1
2 PART 1 Introduction to economics
The Economic Problem

There are three questions that any economy must face:
●● What goods and services should be produced?
●● How should these goods and services be produced?
●● Who should get the goods and services that have been produced?
To satisfy these questions, economies have resources at their disposal which are classified as land, labour
and capital.
●● Land – all the natural resources of the earth. This includes mineral deposits such as iron ore, coal, gold
and copper; oil and gas; fish in the sea; and all the food and raw materials produced from the land.
●● Labour – the human effort, both mental and physical, that goes into production. A worker in a factory
producing precision tools, an investment banker, an unpaid carer, a road sweeper, a teacher – these are
all forms of labour.
●● Capital – the equipment and structures used to produce goods and services. Capital goods include
machinery in factories, buildings, tractors, computers, cooking ovens – anything where the good is not
used for its own sake but for the contribution it makes to production.
land all the natural resources of the earth

labour the human effort, both mental and physical, that goes into production
capital the equipment and structures used to produce goods and services
Scarcity and Choice

It is often assumed that these resources are ultimately scarce in relation to the demand for them. As
members of households, we invariably do not have the ability to meet all our wants and needs. Our needs
are the necessities of life which enable us to survive – food and water, clothing, shelter and proper health
care – and our wants are the things which we believe make for a more comfortable and enjoyable life –
holidays, different styles of clothes, smartphones, leisure activities, the furniture and items we have in our
houses, and so on. Our demand for these wants and needs is generally greater than our ability to satisfy
them. Scarcity means that society has limited resources and therefore cannot produce all the goods and
services households demand. Just as a household cannot give every member everything they want, a
society cannot give every individual the highest standard of living to which they might aspire. Because of
the tension between our wants and needs and scarcity, decisions must be made by households and firms
about how to allocate our incomes and resources to meet our wants and needs.
scarcity the limited nature of society’s resources
Economics investigates the issues arising due to the decisions that households and firms make as
a result of this tension. A typical textbook definition of economics is ‘the study of how society makes
choices in managing its scarce resources and the consequences of this decision-making’. This definition
can, however, mask the complexity and extent of the reach of economics. We might characterize house-
holds as having unlimited wants, but not everyone in society is materialistic, which the idea of unlimited
wants might imply. Some people are more content with the simple things in life and their choices are based
on what they see as being important. These choices are no less valid but reflect the complexity of the sub-
ject. Some people choose to maintain their standard of living through crime. A decision to resort to crime
has reasons and consequences, and these may be of as much interest to an economist as the reasons why
firms choose to advertise their products or why central banks make decisions on monetary policy.
economics the study of how society manages its scarce resources
CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS ECONOMICS? 3
Some might point out that the very idea of scarcity should be questioned in some instances. In Greece,
Spain and some other European countries, there are millions of people who want to work but who cannot
find a job. It could be argued that labour is not scarce in this situation, but job vacancies certainly are.
Economists will be interested in how such a situation arises and what might be done to alleviate the
issues that arise as a result of high levels of unemployment.
The study of economics, therefore, has many facets but there are some central ideas which help define
the field even though economics draws on related disciplines such as psychology, sociology, law, anthro-
pology, geography, statistics and maths, among others. These central ideas provide themes around which
this book is based, and which form the basis of many first-year undergraduate degree courses.
How People Make Decisions

The behaviour of an economy reflects the behaviour of the individuals who make up the economy. We will
now outline some of the core issues which economics explores in relation to individuals making decisions.
People Face Trade-offs

Households and firms must make choices. Making choices involves trade-offs. A trade-off is the loss of
the benefits from a decision to forego or sacrifice one option, balanced against the benefits incurred from
the choice made. When choosing between alternatives we must consider the benefits gained from choos-
ing one course of action but recognize that we must forego the benefits that could arise from the alter-
natives. To get one thing we like, we usually must give up another thing that we might also like. Making
decisions, therefore, requires trading off the benefits of one action against those of another.
trade-off the loss of the benefits from a decision to forego or sacrifice one option balanced against the benefits incurred
from the choice made
To illustrate this important concept, we provide some examples below.
Example 1 Consider an economics undergraduate student who must decide how to allocate their time.
They can spend all of their time studying, which will bring benefits such as a better class of degree; they
can spend all their time enjoying leisure activities, which yield different benefits; or they can divide their
time between the two. For every hour they study, they give up the benefits of an hour they could have
devoted to spending time in the gym, riding a bicycle, watching TV, sleeping or working at a part-time job
for some extra spending money. The student must trade-off the benefits from studying against the bene-
fits of using their time in other ways.
Example 2 A firm might be faced with the decision on whether to invest in a new product or a new
accounting system. Both bring benefits – the new product might result in improved revenues and profits in
the future, and the accounting system may make it more effective in controlling its costs, thus helping its
profits. If scarce investment funds are put into the accounting system, the firm must trade-off the benefits
that the new product investment would have brought.
Example 3 When people are grouped into societies, they face different kinds of trade-offs which can high-
light the interaction of individuals and firms within society in general. An example is the trade-off between
a clean environment and a high level of income. Laws that require firms to reduce pollution raise the cost
of producing goods and services. Because of the higher costs, firms can end up earning smaller profits,
paying lower wages, charging higher prices, or some combination of these three. Thus, while pollution
regulations give us the benefit of a cleaner environment and the improved levels of health that come with
it, they can have the cost of reducing the incomes of the firms’ owners, workers and customers.
4 PART 1 Introduction to economics
Efficiency and Equity An important trade-off that has interested economists for many years is the trade-
off between efficiency and equity. In economics, efficiency deals with ways in which society gets the
most it can (depending how this is defined) from its scarce resources. An outcome can be identified as
being efficient by some measure, but not necessarily desirable. Equity looks at the extent to which the
benefits of outcomes are distributed fairly among society’s members. Often, when government policies
are being designed, these two goals conflict. Because equity is about ‘fairness’ it inevitably involves value
judgements. Differences in opinion lead to disagreements among policymakers and economists.
equity the property of distributing economic prosperity fairly among the members of society
There are some economists who dismiss the idea of a trade-off between equity and efficiency as a
myth in some contexts, because the idea has been generalized to all situations. The historical context and
origins of many economic ideas are important to understand. The origins of the equity and efficiency trade-
off came from Arthur Okun in the 1970s. There are some economists who argue that improving equality
can lead to improvements in efficiency – in effect that it is possible to have a bigger cake and to eat it.
Policies aimed at achieving a more equal distribution of economic well-being, such as the social security
system, involve a trade-off between the effects of a benefits system versus the effects on the efficiency
of the tax system that pays for it. A government decision to raise the top rate of income tax on what it
considers ‘the very rich’ but to abolish income tax for those earning the minimum wage is effectively
a redistribution of income from the rich to the poor. It provides incentive effects for some in society to
seek work, but may reduce the reward for working hard, so some in society choose to work less or even
move to another country where the tax system is less onerous. Whether the trade-off is a ‘good’ thing is
dependent on the philosophy, belief sets and opinions of the decision-makers, and the power which they
have in society. Recognizing that people face trade-offs does not by itself tell us what decisions they will
or should make. Acknowledging and understanding the consequences of trade-offs is important, because
people are likely to make more informed decisions if they understand the options they have available.
Self Test You will often hear the adage ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’. Does this simply refer to the
fact that someone must have paid for the lunch to be provided and served? Or does the recipient of the ‘free
lunch’ also incur a cost?
Opportunity Cost
Because people face trade-offs, making decisions requires comparing the costs and benefits of alternative
courses of action. In many cases, however, the costs of an action are not as obvious as might first appear.
Consider, for example, the decision whether to go to university. The benefits are intellectual enrich-
ment and a lifetime of better job opportunities. In considering the costs, you might be tempted to add
up the money you spend on tuition fees, resources and living expenses over the period of the degree.
This approach is intuitive and might be a way in which non-economists would approach the decision. An
economist would point out that even if you decided to leave full-time education, you would still incur living
expenses and so these costs would be incurred in any event. Accommodation becomes a cost of higher
education only if it is more expensive at university than elsewhere.
This calculation of costs ignores the largest cost of a university education – your time. For most stu-
dents, the wages given up attending university are the largest single cost of their higher education. When
making decisions it is sometimes more helpful to measure the cost in terms of what other options have
had to be sacrificed rather than in money terms. Opportunity cost is the measure of the options sacri-
ficed in making a decision. The opportunity cost of going to university is the wages from full-time work
that you have had to sacrifice.
opportunity cost whatever must be given up to obtain some item; the value of the benefits foregone (sacrificed)
CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS ECONOMICS? 5
Calculating Opportunity Costs Opportunity cost is the cost expressed in terms of the next best alternative
sacrificed – what must be given up in order to acquire something. As a general principle, we can express
the opportunity cost as a ratio expressed as the sacrifice in one good in terms of the gain in the other:
Sacrifice of good x
Opportunity cost of good y 5
Gain in good y
Expressing the opportunity cost in terms of good x would give:
Sacrifice of good y
Opportunity cost of good x 5
Gain in good x
Opportunity cost can be expressed in terms of either good – they are the reciprocal of each other.
Thinking at the Margin

Decisions in life are rarely straightforward and usually involve weighing up costs and benefits. Having a
framework or principle on which to base decision-making can help if we want to maximize benefits or
minimize costs. Thinking at the margin is one such framework that economists adopt in thinking about
decision-making. Marginal changes describe small incremental adjustments to an existing plan of action.
Marginal analysis is based around an assumption that economic agents (an individual, firm or organiza-
tion that has an impact in some way on an economy) are seeking to maximize or minimize outcomes when
making decisions. Consumers may be assumed to seek to maximize the satisfaction they gain from their
incomes, and firms to maximize profits and minimize costs. Maximizing and minimizing behaviour is based
on a further assumption that economic agents behave rationally.
marginal changes small incremental adjustments to a plan of action

economic agents an individual, firm or organization that has an impact in some way on an economy
It is important to stop and consider what we mean by the term ‘rational’ in this context. When some
economists use the term ‘rational’ in the context of decision-making, it simply means the assumption
that decision-makers can make consistent choices between alternatives. We will look at this in more detail
later in the book, but at this stage we will express rationality based on decision-makers’ ability to rank their
preferences and do the best they can with their existing resources. Thinking at the margin means that
decision-makers choose a course of action such that the marginal cost is equal to the marginal benefit. If
a decision results in greater marginal benefits than marginal costs, it is worth making that decision and
continuing up to the point where the marginal cost of the decision is equal to the marginal benefit.
rational the assumption that decision-makers can make consistent choices between alternatives
The assumption of rational behaviour provides a framework around which decisions can be analyzed
and has been a basic tenet of economics since the 1870s, with thinkers such as William Stanley Jevons
and Carl Menger building on work by David Ricardo and Jeremy Bentham, which became part of the
so-called marginalist school. The assumptions of rational economic behaviour have implications which
have been subject to criticism. In studying economic models which rely on the assumption of rational
behaviour, it is important to remember that if these assumptions are relaxed, outcomes might be very
different. We will cover a number of economic models which are based on this assumption, because it
provides a view into the way in which economic analysis has developed historically and how it is subject to
evolution and change. It also provides a way of thinking about issues which can be contrasted with other
ways of thinking when different assumptions are held.
People Respond to Incentives

If we assume the principle of rational behaviour and that people make decisions by comparing costs and
benefits, it is logical to assume that their behaviour may change when the costs or benefits change. That
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have taken the food out of it. Much of this water passes out through
the leaves.
You know when you are very warm, you feel a moisture come on
your skin. That was once water in your blood. It creeps out through
tiny pores over all your skin.
The plant skin has such pores. The water goes off through them.
When the plant breathes out this water, then more hurries up through
the cells to take its place. So the sap keeps running up and down all
the time.
Plants not only send out water through the pores of the leaves, but
also a kind of air or gas. If they did not do that, we should soon all be
dead. Can I make that plain to you?
Did you ever hear your mother say, “The air here is bad or close”?
Did you ever see your teacher open a door or a window, to “air” the
schoolroom? If you ask why, you will be told “So many people
breathing here make the air bad.”
How does our breathing make the air bad? When our blood runs
through our bodies it takes up little bits of matter that our bodies are
done with. This stuff makes the blood dark and thick. But soon the
blood comes around to our lungs.
Now as we breathe out, we send into the air the tiny atoms of this
waste stuff. It is carbonic acid gas. As we breathe in, we take from
the fresh air a gas called oxygen. That goes to our lungs, and lo! it
makes the blood fresh and clean, and red once more.
So you can see, that when many people breathe in one room they
will use up all the good clean air. At the same time they will load the
air of the room with the gas they breathe out.
That is why the window is opened. We wish to sweep away the bad
air, and let in good air.
But at this rate, as all men and other animals breathe out carbonic
acid gas, why does not all the air in the world get bad? Why, when
they all use oxygen, do they not use up all the oxygen that is in the
world?
Just here the plants come in to help. Carbonic acid gas is bad for
men, it is food to plants. Oxygen is needed by animals, but plants
want to get rid of it. Animals breathe out a form of carbon and
breathe in oxygen. Plants do just the other thing. They breathe out
oxygen and take in carbonic acid gas.
The air, loaded with this, comes to the plant. At once all the little leaf-
mouths are wide open to snatch out of the air the carbonic acid gas.
And, as the plants are very honest little things, they give where they
take away. They take carbon from the air, and breathe into the air a
little oxygen.
Where did they get that? The air they breathe has both carbon and
oxygen in it. So they keep what they want,—that is, carbon,—and
send out the oxygen.
Now it is only the green part of the plant that does this fine work for
us. It is the green parts, chiefly the leaves, that send out good
oxygen for us to breathe. It is the green leaf that snatches from the
air those gases which would hurt us.
It is the green leaf that changes the harmful form of carbon into good
plant stuff, which is fit for our food. How does it do that? Let us see.
What makes a leaf green? Bobby who crushed a leaf to see, told me
“a leaf was full of green paint.”
Inside the green leaves is a kind of green paste, or jelly. Now it is this
“leaf-green” that does all the work. The “leaf-green” eats up carbon.
The “leaf-green” turns carbon into nice safe plant material. It is “leaf-
green” that sets free good oxygen for us.
“Leaf-green” is a good fairy, living in every little cell in the leaf. Leaf-
green is a fairy which works only in the day-time. Leaf-green likes
the sun. Leaf-green will not work in the dark, but goes to bed and
goes to sleep!
In such simple lessons as these, I can tell you only a little of what is.
The deep “how” and “why” of things I cannot explain. Even the very
wisest men do not know all the how and the why of the “leaf-green”
fairy.
I have told you these few things that you may have wonders to think
of when you see green leaves. After this lesson, will you not care
more for seeds and leaves than you ever did before?
LESSON VIII.
THE COLOR OF PLANTS.
Almost the first thing that you will notice about a plant is its color. The
little child, before it can speak, will hold out its hands for a bright red
rose, or a golden lily. I think the color is one of the most wonderful
things about a plant.
Come into the field. Here you see a yellow buttercup, growing near a
white daisy. Beside them is a red rose. Close by, blooms a great
purple flower. All grow out of the same earth, and breathe the same
air. Yet how they differ in color.
Some flowers have two or three colors upon each petal. Have you
not seen the tulip with its striped blossoms, and the petunias spotted
with white and red?
The flower of the cotton plant changes in color. Within a few days
this flower appears in three distinct hues. The chicory blossom
changes from blue to nearly white as the day grows warm.
Look at your mother’s roses. Some are white, others are red, pink, or
yellow. None are ever blue.
Then look at a wild-rose tree. The root and stem are brown. The
green color is in the leaves, and in some of the stems. The petals
are red. The stamens and pistils are yellow.
You never saw the red color get astray and run into the leaves. The
leaf-green did not lose itself, and travel up to the petals. The
stamens and pistils did not turn brown instead of golden.
Does not that seem a wonder, now that you think of it? Perhaps you
never noticed it before. It is one thing to see things, and another to
notice them so that you think about them.
Here is another fact about color in plants. All summer you see that
the leaves are green. In the autumn they begin to change. You wake
up some fine frosty morning and the tree leaves are all turned red,
yellow, brown, or purple. It is a fine sight.
It is the going away of the leaf-green from the leaf that begins the
change of leaf-color in the fall. The leaves have done growing. Their
stems are hard and woody. They do not breathe as freely as they
did. The sap does not run through them as it did early in the season.
The leaf-green shrinks up in the cells. Or, it goes off to some other
part of the plant. Sometimes part of it is destroyed. Then the leaves
begin to change.
Sometimes a red sap runs into the leaf cells. Or, an oily matter goes
there, in place of the “leaf-green.”
The leaf-green changes color if it gets too much oxygen. In the
autumn the plant does not throw out so much oxygen. What it keeps
turns the leaf-green from green to red, yellow, or brown.
The bright color in plants is not in the flower alone. You have seen
that roots and seeds have quite as bright colors as blossoms. What
flowers are brighter than many fruits are?
The cherry is crimson, or pink, or nearly black. What a fine yellow,
red, purple, we find in plums! Is there any yellow brighter than that of
the Indian corn? Is there a red gayer than you find on the apples you
like so well? What is more golden than a heap of oranges?
If you wish to find splendid color in a part of a plant, look at a water-
melon. The skin is green marked with pale green, or white. Next,
inside, is a rind of pale greenish white. Then comes a soft, juicy,
crimson mass. In that are jet black seeds.
Oh, where does all this color come from? Why is it always just in the
right place? The melon rind does not take the black tint that belongs
to the seeds. The skin does not put on the crimson of the pulp. See,
too, how this color comes slowly, as the melon ripens. At first the
skin is of the same dark green as the leaves, and inside all is of a
greenish white.
Let us try to find out where all this color comes from. Do you know
we ourselves can make changes in the color of flowers? Take one of
those big hydrangeas. It has a pink flower. But give it very rich black
earth to grow in. Mix some alum and iron with the earth. Water it with
strong bluing water. Lay soot and coal-dust upon the earth it grows
in. Very soon your hydrangea will have blue flowers, instead of pink
ones.
Once I had a petunia with large flowers of a dirty white color. I fed it
with soot and coal-dust. I watered it with strong bluing water. After a
few weeks my petunia had red or crimson flowers. Some of the
flowers were of a very deep red. Others were spotted with red and
white.
Now from this you may guess that the plant obtains much of its color
from what it feeds on in the soil.
But you may give the plant very good soil, and yet if you make it
grow in the dark, it will have almost no color. If it lives at all, even the
green leaves will be pale and sickly.
This will show you that the light must act in some way on what the
plant eats, to make the fine color.
The plant, you know, eats minerals from the earth. In its food it gets
little grains of coloring stuff.
But how the color goes to the right place we cannot tell. We cannot
tell why it is, that from the same earth, in the same light, there will be
flowers of many colors. We cannot tell why flowers on the same
plant, or parts of the same flower, will have different colors. That is
one of the secrets and wonders that no one has found out.
There are many plants which store up coloring matter, just as plants
store up starch, or sugar. The indigo, which makes our best blue
dye, comes from a plant. Ask your mother to show you some indigo.
When the plant is soaked in water the coloring stuff sinks to the
bottom of the water, like a blue dust.
Did you ever notice the fine red sumac? That gives a deep yellow
dye. The saffron plant is full of a bright orange color. Other plants
give other dyes.
Sometimes children take the bright petals of plants, or stems, that
have bright color in them, to paint with. Did you ever do that? You
can first draw a picture, and then color it, by rubbing on it the colored
parts of plants.
Some trees and plants, from which dyes are made, have the coloring
stuff in the bark or wood. That is the way with the logwood tree. The
best black dye is made from that.
You have seen how much dark red juice you can find in berries. Did
you ever squeeze out the red juice of poke or elder berries? It is like
red ink. Did you ever notice how strawberries stain your fingers red?
Grapes and blackberries make your lips and tongue purple.
No doubt you have often had your hands stained brown, for days,
from the husks of walnuts. All these facts will show you what a deal
of color is taken up from the soil by plants, changed by the sun, and
stored up in their different parts.
But the chief of all color in the plant is the leaf-green. We cannot
make a dye out of that.
Leaf-green is the color of which there is the most. It is the color
which suits the eye best of all. How tired we should be of crimson or
orange grass!
Though leaves and stems are generally green, there are some
plants which have stems of a bright red or yellow color. Yellow is the
common color for stamens and pistils. In some plants, as the tulip,
the peach, and others, the stamens are of a deep red-brown, or
crimson, or pink, or even black color.
LESSON IX.
THE MOTION OF PLANTS.
If I ask you what motion plants have, I think you will tell me that they
have a motion upward. You will say that they “grow up.” You will not
say that they move in the wind. You know that that is not the kind of
motion which I mean.
Some plants grow more by day, some by night. On the whole, there
is more growing done by day than by night. At night it is darker,
cooler, and there is more moisture in the air. The day has more heat,
light, and dryness. For these causes growth varies by day and by
night.
Warmth and moisture are the two great aids to the growth of plants.
Heat, light, and wet have most to do with the motion of plants. For
the motion of plants comes chiefly from growth.
The parts of the plant the motion of which we shall notice, are, the
stems, leaves, tendrils, and petals. Perhaps you have seen the
motion of a plant stem toward the sunshine.
Did you ever notice in house plants, that the leaves and branches
turn to the place from which light comes to them? Did you ever hear
your mother say that she must turn the window plants around, so
that they would not grow “one-sided”?
Did you ever take a pot plant that had grown all toward one side, and
turn it around, and then notice it? In two or three weeks you would
find the leaves, stems, branches, bent quite the other way. First they
lifted up straight. Then they slowly bent around to the light.
Perhaps you have noticed that many flower stems stoop to the east
in the morning. Then they move slowly around. At evening you find
them bending toward the west.
This is one motion of stems. Another motion is that of long, weak
stems, such as those of the grape-vine or morning-glory. They will
climb about a tree or stick.
Such vines do much of their climbing by curling around the thing
which supports them. If you go into the garden, and look at a bean-
vine, you will see what fine twists and curves it makes about the
beanpole.
Such twists or curves can be seen yet more plainly in a tendril. A
tendril is a little string-like part of the plant, which serves it for hands.
Sometimes tendrils grow out of the tips of the leaves.
Sometimes they grow from the stem. Sometimes they grow from the
end of a leaf-stem in place of a final leaf.
Tendrils, as I told you before, are twigs, leaves, buds, or other parts
of a plant, changed into little, long clasping hands.
Now and then the long slender stem of a leaf acts as a tendril. It
twists once around the support which holds up the vine. Thus it ties
the stem of the vine to the support.
You have seen not only climbing plants, such as the grape-vine. You
have seen also creeping plants, as the strawberry and ground-ivy.
You will tell me that a climbing plant is one which travels up
something. You will say, also, that a creeping plant is a vine which
runs along the ground.
The climbing plant helps itself along by tendrils. The creeping plant
has little new roots to hold it firm.
Look at the strawberry beds. Do you see some long sprays which
seem to tie plant to plant? Your father will tell you that they are
“runners.”
The plant throws out one of these runners. Then at the end of the
runner a little root starts out, and fastens it to the ground. A runner is
very like a tendril. There are never any leaves upon it. But the end of
a tendril never puts out a bud. The end of the runner, where it roots,
puts out a bud.
This bud grows into a new plant. The new plant sends out its
runners. These root again, and so on. Thus, you see, a few
strawberry plants will soon cover a large space of ground.
There is a very pretty little fern, called the “walking fern,” which has
an odd way of creeping about. When the slender fronds[8] reach their
full length, some of the tallest ones bend over to the earth. The tip of
the frond touches the ground. From that tip come little root-like
fibres, and fix themselves in the earth. A new plant springs up from
them.
When the new plant is grown, a frond of that bends over and takes
root again. So it goes on. Soon there is a large, soft, thick mat of
walking fern upon the ground.
This putting out new roots to go on by is also the fashion of some
climbing plants. Did you ever notice how the ivy will root all along a
wall? Little strong roots put out at the joints of the stem, and hold the
plant fast.
All this motion in plants is due to growth. In very hot lands where
there is not only much heat, but where long, wet seasons fill the
earth with water, the growth of plants is very rapid.
In these hot lands, there are more climbing plants than in cool lands.
Some trees, which, in cool lands where they grow slowly, never
climb, turn to climbers in hot lands.
Some plants will twine and climb in hot weather, and stand up
straight alone in cool weather. This shows that in hot weather they
grow so fast that they cannot hold themselves up. When it is cool,
they grow slowly, and make more strong fibre. But we must leave the
stem motions of plants and speak of the motion of other parts.
Let me tell you how to try the leaf motion of plants. Take a house
plant to try, as that is where wind will not move the leaf. Get a piece
of glass about four or five inches square. Smoke it very black.
Lay it under the leaf, so that the point of the leaf bent down will be
half an inch from the glass.
Then take a bristle from a brush and put it in the tip of the leaf. Run
the bristle in the leaf so that the end will come beyond the leaf, and
just touch the glass. Leave it a night and a day. Then you will find the
story of the leaf’s travels written on the glass. As the leaf moves, the
bristle will write little lines in the black on the glass. Try it.
As you have proved the motion of the leaf with your smoked glass,
let us look at leaf motion. There is, first, that motion which unfolds or
unrolls the leaf from the bud. That is made because, by feeding, the
plant is growing larger, and the leaf needs more room.
The leaf often has, after it is grown, a motion of opening and
shutting. Other leaves have a motion of rising and falling. But of
these motions I will tell you in another lesson.
Flowers have, first, the motion by which the flower-bud unfolds to the
full, open blossom. That, as the leaf-bud motion, comes from
growing. Did you ever watch a rose-bud, or a lily-bud, unfold?
Then the flowers of many plants have a motion of opening and
shutting each day. I shall tell you of that, also, in another lesson.
Besides these motions in plants, there are others. Did you ever see
how a plant will turn, or bend, to grow away from a stone, or
something, that is in its way?
If you watch with care the root of one of your bean-seeds, you will
see that it grows in little curves, now this way, now that. It grows so,
even when it grows in water, or in air, where nothing touches it.
People who study these changes tell us that the whole plant, as it
grows, has a turning motion. In this motion all the plant, and all its
parts, move around as they grow.
The curious reasons for this motion of plants, you must learn when
you are older. I can now tell you only a little about it. I will tell you that
the plant moves, because the little cells in it grow in a one-sided way.
Thus the air, light, heat, moisture, cause the cells on one side of the
plant to grow larger than the others. Then the plant stoops, or is
pulled over, that way. It is bent over by the weight. Then that side is
hidden, and the other side has more light, heat, and wet. And as the
cells grow, it stoops that way.
This is easy to understand in climbing plants. Their long, slim stems
are weak. They bend with their own weight. They bend to the side
that is slightly heavier. Their motion then serves to find them a
support. As they sweep around, they touch something which will hold
them up. Then they cling to it.
Now, there is another reason for a tendril taking hold of anything.
The skin of the tendril is very soft and fine. As it lies against a string,
or stick, or branch, the touch of this object on its fine skin makes the
tendril bend, or curl.
It keeps on bending or curling, until it gets quite around the object
which it touches. Then it still goes on bending, and so it gets around
a second time, and a third, and so on. Thus the tendril makes curl
after curl, as closely and evenly as you could wind a string on a stick.
Some plants, as the hop, move around with the sun; other plants
move in just the other direction. It is as if some turned their faces,
and some their backs, to the sun.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] What you call the leaf of a fern is, properly speaking, a frond.
LESSON X.
PLANTS AND THEIR PARTNERS.
Did I not tell you that the plants had taken partners and gone into
business? I said that their business was seed-growing, but that the
result of the business was to feed and clothe the world.
In our first lessons we showed you that we get all our food, clothes,
light, and fuel, first or last, from plants. “Stop! stop!” you say. “Some
of us burn coal. Coal is a mineral.” Yes, coal is a mineral now, but it
began by being a vegetable. All the coal-beds were once forests of
trees and ferns. Ask your teacher to tell you about that.
If all these things which we need come from plants, we may be very
glad that the plants have gone into business to make more plants.
Who are these partners which we told you plants have? They are the
birds and the insects. They might have a sign up, you see, “Plant,
Insect & Co., General Providers for Men.”
Do let us get at the truth of this matter at once! Do you remember
what you read about the stamens and pistils which stand in the
middle of the flower? You know the stamens carry little boxes full of
pollen. The bottom of the pistil is a little case, or box, full of seed
germs.
You know also that the pollen must creep down through the pistils,
and touch the seed germs before they can grow to be seeds. And
you also know, that unless there are new seeds each year the world
of plants would soon come to an end.
Now you see from all this that the stamens and pistils are the chief
parts of the flower. The flower can give up its calyx, or cup, and its
gay petals, its color, honey, and perfume. If it keeps its stamens and
pistils, it will still be a true seed-bearing flower.
It is now plain that the aim of
the flower must be to get
that pollen-dust safely
landed on the top of the
pistil.
You look at a lily, and you
say, “Oh! that is very easy.
Just let those pollen boxes
fly open, and their dust is
sure to hit the pistil, all right.”
But not so fast! Let me tell
you that many plants do not
carry the stamens and pistils
all in one flower. The
stamens, with the pollen
boxes, may be in one flower,
and the pistil, with its sticky
cushion to catch pollen, may
be in another flower.
More than that, these
flowers, some with stamens, THE THREE PARTNERS.
and some with pistils, may
not even be all on one plant! Have you ever seen a poplar-tree? The
poplar has its stamen-flowers on one tree, and its pistil-flowers on
another. The palm-tree is in the same case.
Now this affair of stamen and pistil and seed making does not seem
quite so easy, does it? And here is still another fact. Seeds are the
best and strongest, and most likely to produce good plants, if the
pollen comes to the pistil, from a flower not on the same plant.
This is true even of such plants as the lily, the tulip, and the
columbine, where stamens and pistils grow in one flower.
Now you see quite plainly that in some way the pollen should be
carried about. The flowers being rooted in one place cannot carry
their pollen where it should go. Who shall do it for them?
Here is where the insect comes in. Let us look at him. Insects vary
much in size. Think of the tiny ant and gnat. Then think of the great
bumble bee, or butterfly. You see this difference in size fits them to
visit little or big flowers.
You have seen the great bumble bee busy in a lily, or a trumpet
flower. Perhaps, too, you have seen a little ant, or gnat, come
crawling out of the tiny throat of the thyme or sage blossom. And you
have seen the wasp and bee, busy on the clover blossom or the
honeysuckle.
Insects have wings to take them quickly wherever they choose to go.
Even the ant, which has cast off its wings,[9] can crawl fast on its six
nimble legs.
Then, too, many insects have a long pipe, or tongue, for eating. You
have seen such a tongue on the bee.[10] In this book you will soon
read about the butterfly, with its long tube which coils up like a watch
spring.
With this long tube the insect can poke into all the slim cups, and
horns, and folds, of the flowers of varied shapes.
Is it not easy to see that when the insect flies into a flower to feed, it
may be covered with the pollen from the stamens? Did you ever
watch a bee feeding in a wild rose? You could see his velvet coat all
covered with the golden flower dust.
Why does the insect go to the flower? He does not know that he is
needed to carry pollen about. He never thinks of seed making. He
goes into the flower to get food. He eats pollen sometimes, but
mostly honey.
In business, you know, all the partners wish to make some profit for
themselves. The insect partner of the flower has honey for his gains.
The flower lays up a drop of honey for him.
In most flowers there is a little honey. Did you ever suck the sweet
drop out of a clover, or a honeysuckle? This honey gathers in the
flower about the time that the pollen is ripe in the boxes. Just at the
time that the flower needs the visit of the insects, the honey is set
ready for them.
Into the flower goes the insect for honey. As it moves about, eating,
its legs, its body, even its wings, get dusty with pollen. When it has
eaten the honey of one flower, off it goes to another. And it carries
with it the pollen grains.
As it creeps into the next flower, the pollen rubs off the insect upon
the pistil. The pistil is usually right in the insect’s way to the honey.
The top of the pistil is sticky, and it holds the pollen grains fast. So
here and there goes the insect, taking the pollen from one flower to
another.
But stop a minute. The pollen from a rose will not make the seed
germs of a lily grow. The tulip can do nothing with pollen from a
honeysuckle. The pollen of a buttercup is not wanted by any flower
but a buttercup. So of all. The pollen to do the germ any good must
come from a flower of its own kind.
What is to be done in this case? How will the insect get the pollen to
the right flower? Will it not waste the clover pollen on a daisy?
Now here comes in a very strange habit of the insect. Insects fly
“from flower to flower,” but they go from flowers of one kind to other
flowers of the same kind. Watch a bee. It goes from clover to clover,
not from clover to daisy.
Notice a butterfly. It flits here and there. But you will see it settle on a
pink, and then on another pink, and on another, and so on. If it
begins with golden rod, it keeps on with golden rod.
God has fixed this habit in insects. They feed for a long time on the
same kind of flowers. They do this, even if they have to fly far to
seek them. If I have in my garden only one petunia, the butterfly
which feeds in that will fly off over the fence to some other garden to
find another petunia. He will not stop to get honey from my sweet
peas.
Some plants have drops of honey all along up the stem to coax ants
or other creeping insects up into the flower.
But other plants have a sticky juice along the stem, to keep crawling
insects away. In certain plants the bases of the leaf-stems form little
cups, for holding water. In this water, creeping insects fall and drown.
Why is this? It is because insects that would not properly carry the
pollen to another flower, would waste it. So the plant has traps, or
sticky bars, to keep out the kind of insects that would waste the
pollen, or would eat up the honey without carrying off the pollen.
I have not had time to tell you of the many shapes of flowers. You
must notice that for yourselves.
Some are like cups, some like saucers, or plates, or bottles, or bags,
or vases. Some have long horns, some have slim tubes or throats.
Some are all curled close about the stamens and pistils.
These different kinds of flowers need different kinds of insects to get
their pollen. Some need bees with thick bodies. Some need
butterflies with long, slim tubes. Some need wasps with long, slender
bodies and legs. Some need little creeping ants, or tiny gnats.
Each kind of flower has what will coax the right kind of insects, and
keep away the wrong ones. What has the plant besides honey to
coax the insect for a visit? The flower has its lovely color, not for us,
but for insects. The sweet perfume is also for insects.
Flowers that need the visits of moths, or other insects that fly by
night, are white or pale yellow. These colors show best at night.
Flowers that need the visits of day-flying insects, are mostly red,
blue, orange, purple, scarlet.
There are some plants, as the grass, which have no sweet perfume
and no gay petals. I have told you of flowers which are only a small
brown scale with a bunch of stamens and pistils held upon it. And
they have no perfumes. These flowers want no insect partners. Their
partner is the summer wind! The wind blows the pollen of one plant
to another. That fashion suits these plants very well.
So, by means of insect or wind partners, the golden pollen is carried
far and wide, and seeds ripen.
But what about the bird partners? Where do they come in?
If the ripe seed fell just at the foot of the parent plant, and grew
there, you can see that plants would be too much crowded. They
would spread very little. Seeds must be carried from place to place.
Some light seeds, as those of the thistle, have a plume. The maple
seeds have wings. By these the wind blows them along.
But most seeds are too heavy to be wind driven. They must be
carried. For this work the plant takes its partner, the bird.
To please the eye of the bird, and attract it to the seed, the plant has
gay-colored seeds. Also it has often gay-colored seed cases. The
rose haws, you know, are vivid red. The juniper has a bright blue
berry. The smilax has a black berry. The berries of the mistletoe are
white, of the mulberry purple.
These colors catch the eye of the bird. Down he flies to swallow the
seed, case, and all. Also many seed cases, or covers, are nice food
to eat. They are nice for us. We like them. But first of all they were
spread out for the bird’s table.
Birds like cherries, plums, and strawberries. Did you ever watch a
bird picking blackberries? The thorns do not bother him. He swallows
the berries fast,—pulp and seed.
You have been told of the hard case which covers the soft or germ
part of the seed, and its seed-leaf food. This case does not melt up
in the bird’s crop or gizzard, as the soft food does. So when it falls to
the ground the germ is safe, and can sprout and grow.
Birds carry seeds in this way from land to land, as well as from field
to field. They fly over the sea and carry seeds to lonely islands,
which, but for the birds, might be barren.
So by means of its insect partners, the plant’s seed germs grow, and
perfect seeds. By means of the bird partners, the seeds are carried
from place to place. Thus many plants grow, and men are clothed,
and warmed, and fed.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] See Nature Reader, No. 2, Lessons on Ants.
[10] No. 1, Lesson 18.
LESSON XI.
AIR, WATER, AND SAND PLANTS.
Most of the plants which you see about you grow in earth or soil. You
have heard your father say that the grass in some fields was scanty
because the soil was poor. You have been told that wheat and corn
would not grow in some other field, because the soil was not rich
enough.
You understand that. The plant needs good soil, made up of many
kinds of matter. These minerals are the plant’s food. Perhaps you
have helped your mother bring rich earth from the forest, to put
about her plants.
But beside these plants growing in good earth in the usual way, there
are plants which choose quite different places in which to grow.
There are air-plants, water-plants, sand-plants. Have you seen all
these kinds of plants?
You have, no doubt, seen plants growing in very marshy, wet places,
as the rush, the iris, and the St. John’s-wort. Then, too, you have
seen plants growing right in the water, as the water-lilies, yellow and
white; the little green duck-weed; and the water crow-foot.
If you have been to the sea-shore, you have seen green, rich-looking
plants, growing in a bank of dry sand. In the West and South, you
may find fine plants growing in what seem to be drifts, or plains of
clear sand.
Air-plants are less common. Let us look at them first. There are
some plants which grow upon other plants and yet draw no food
from the plant on which they grow. Such plants put forth roots,
leaves, stems, blossoms, but all their food is drawn from the air.
I hope you may go and see some hot-house where orchids are kept.
You will see there splendid plants growing on a dead branch, or

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About the authors vii part 4 Firm behaviour and market

PART 2 The theory of competitive markets 33 part 5 Factor markets 315

About the authors vii 4 Background to demand: Consumer

PART 2 6 Consumers, producers and the efficiency

8 Public goods, common resources and 14 Market structures IV: Contestable

9 Market failure and externalities 204 PART 5

11 Market structures I: monopoly 242

18 Information and behavioural Glossary 432

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The Economy and Economic Systems

The Economic Problem

land all the natural resources of the earth

Scarcity and Choice

scarcity the limited nature of society’s resources

economics the study of how society manages its scarce resources

How People Make Decisions

People Face Trade-offs

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Thinking at the Margin

marginal changes small incremental adjustments to a plan of action

People Respond to Incentives

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