Teasels are used in the making of woolen cloth the common teasel grows wild in England and Wales and southern parts of Scotland. It is also found in Europe, Asia and North Africa. The teasel has large prickly flower heads which remain on the dead stems throughout t...

Lichens are found throughout the world, often occupying areas where no other plant can become established. They are found in their greatest numbers in the Alpine and Arctic regions, where they are the dominant form of vegetation. Lichens are the products of two distin...

Cereals, of course, in the general sense, including wheat, rice, maize (known as corn in Canada and the United States), rye, oats and barley were among the earliest plants grown by man. But packaged or processed cereals are a modern development. Breakf...

Pearls come from mollusks a group of animals which includes squids, clams, and oysters.

Under its shell the mollusc has a mantle, or outer-skin. When, a particle of dirt or tiny marine creature gets stuck in this mantle, a hard substance forms a...

The hard, dry corals seen in stores and museums are made up of the combined skeletons of tiny creatures which once lived joined together as a colony in the sea. The coral animal, or polyp, measures only about a fifteenth of an inch in diameter. It is a primitive type of plant-...

In 1893 the United States Supreme Court tried to clarify, the differences between a fruit and a vegetable' ' by saying that vegetables are eaten as part of the main course of a meal, but fruit is eaten as an appetizer or dessert, or for a s...

The grain in a piece of wood is the pattern produced by the annual bands or rings which grow in the trunk, of the tree during its lifetime. The tree's rate of growth varies with the seasons. In the spring soft Iaorous wood is needed to carry sap. In the summer, s...

Plants breathe oxygen and carbon dioxide. In daylight they' produce their own food at the same time by a process known as photosynthesis. During this process the plants release more oxygen into the atmosphere than they breathe in. The effect of the plants' feeding and...

The waves that break on the seashore are usually caused by winds blowing across the open sea. During storms, waves reach 12m (39 ft) or more in height. The highest wave recorded in the open sea was 34m (112ft) high.

Other large and often destructiv...

A river will die when pollution reaches such a level that all the available oxygen is absorbed. This can happen if the oxygen is used up by the presence in the water of an excessive number of waste organisms. Large amounts of nitrogen or phosphorus make a ri...