Another New Year has come and gone. It's time to look forward to the future. This week we have a lovely story from you. It's about forgetfulness and the other a very good piece on jealousy.

Jealousy and forgetfulness can go hand in hand . Sometimes children tend to forget when they have work or when their mother tells them to do something. Jealousy too is the same. There are times when you feel that your parents show more love to one and not the other.

Well this is not so. If you have a sister or brother who is younger than you and feel this way don't. Because parents love equally though sometimes it does not show. If you and your friends are playing and one of them has a great toy don't be jealous about it because it's not worth your envy. If you do become jealous it will only eat into you and make you a very unkind and selfish person.

I know none of you young ones want to be unkind or selfish. So be good and giving and try not to be forgetful too.

Until next time
Aunty Sunshine

• Who is the best among us?
• Harley to go on a diet
• The forgetful policeman
• Our national symbols
• Making and storing food

Who is the best among us?

Almost every religion teaches us to refrain from bad deeds and asks us to cultivate good deeds. By doing such things, it is hoped that our world will be a better place to live in. Yet, it is sad that at present, religions seem to be mere tools to satisfy one's greed and one's hatred.

In this world, we must try to understand each other. The differences among us, including our religious differences, do not mean that we cannot live in peace and harmony. In fact by such differences we can prove that we are clearly different from the animal kingdom. Animals always fight and attack each other in order to survive, but we as human beings must be different. In fact we can survive better when we live in unity. In this case, the need for understanding and tolerance is a must.

It is because of selfish motives and ignorance that we think, "Whatever belongs to me is the best and whatever belongs to others is not so." One who has such a thought will never develop his spirituality. Such a person can be compared to a frog in a deep well which always thinks its own place is the best without any investigation about the outside world. If we want to progress spiritually we must eliminate these selfish motives and ignorance.

Every religion, which we embrace, is just an instrument to achieve peace within and without. It is not mere propaganda which should be shouted or cried out. It is something which should be learned and then practised. It is not something that makes one arrogant or proud, in reverse it can make one humble.

Yet, what a pity! At present, some religions seem to be mere instruments to escape from poverty and to gain a more comfortable life. Some religions become an instrument to do violent things, like what happened recently in Indonesia, India etc. As a result, religion has lost its real sense. Of course such things cannot be blamed on religions, but the persons who claim to embrace the religions.

G. P. Y. Weerasinghe
Ananda College
Colombo 10

Harley to go on a diet

Harley the Dalmatian, who weighs 11 stone, will have to forgo the good life for a while after being put on a strict diet.

The six-year-old, which is double the weight it should be, was taken to an RSPCA shelter in Nottingham after the death of its owners. Howard Parker, the shelter manager, saidlast week: He was obviously a well-loved and well-fed bog but, like humans needed a combination of a light diet and sensible exercise. It would be dangerous to reduce his weight too quickly, but he will be on a radical diet and fitness programme. It will take about half a year to get him in shape."

Ella Blanchard, RSPCA supervisor in Nottingham said "I have never seen anything like it before. There is a thin dog inside Harley waiting to get out He wants to play but he just can't.

The forgetful policeman

Once upon a time there was a policeman. His name was Mr. Stone. He was the bravest policeman in his unit. He was honest, hard working and clever. But he had one weakness- he always forgot things.

Everyday his wife would say to him, "Henry, you have forgotten again to set the alarm to 6.00 a.m. Now you'll be late for work." And his boss would tell him in an impatient tone, "Stone, how many times have I to remind you to wear your policeman's badge?"

Mr. Stone had to face many difficulties because of his forgetfulness. He would forget to go to the grocer to buy provisions on his way home. If he remembered to go there, he would forget what to buy. He would buy buns instead of bread or oranges instead of apples. And his wife would be cross.

But there were worse things that happened to him. One day he caught a thief who had been wanted for years. He was very happy about it. But alas! When he got the thief inside the prison and locked it, he forgot to take off the key. The thief was nowhere to be found when he came back. His boss had an awful lot to say about that. And after that, his mates, were always mocking him. Poor Mr. Stone!

He was ashamed of his forgetfulness so he decided to get some help. He went to a wise woman in his town. She was called Gruffanaff. When she heard his problem, Gruffanaff scratched her head thoughtfully, then smiled. "I will give you a potion which will make you remember everything," she said. "Only you mustn't drink too much. You must drink one teaspoonful of it at night." Mr. Stone agreed. It cost him ten gold pieces.

He got the potion and went home happily with it. That night, before going to bed, he drank it. But wait— Mr Stone! You forgot Gruffanaff's warning! You drank all of the potion. Dear me, what will happen to you now?

He woke up early next morning. He got out of bed and looked around him. Everything seemed strange and unfamiliar. His wife came in and said, "Why Henry, you are up early today." He asked her, "Who are you please, and where am I?" His wife was astonished and tried to remind him that she was his wife, but he shut his lips tightly and didn't speak, because he thought she was lying. She gave an unhappy cry and ran out of the room.

So that was what happened to him. Because he drank all the potion, he forgot everything, instead of remembering. Poor Mr. Stone!

After a while he washed and dressed himself. Then he said, "I'm going to find out who I am," and went out. He walked a long way and came to the wild wood. But he didn't stop. He went on and on. No one saw poor Mr. Stone again.

Sent by W.M. Subashini Madduma Bandara
A/Swarnapali BMV
Anuradhapura

Stamp News 63

Our national symbols

Uncle D.C.R

Avurudu is a time for national festivities. Sports festivals are held all over, mainly with traditional games. The accent is on anything national these days.

Apart from the National Anthem and the National Flag, we also have a National Tree and a National Flower.

On February 22, 1995, a Re 1 stamp was issued depicting the Nil Manel or blue water lily, the National Flower. One of several flowering plants which show striking adaptations to life in water, this flower is highly valued in aquatic horticulture. It has several varieties which differ in size and colour.

The botanical name of the flower is Nymphaea stellata Wild. The first part of the name has been derived from the Greek word 'nymphaia' which means water lily and the second part from the Latin word 'stellatus' meaning star. This is because in a lake having an abundance of this plant, the leaves and flowers give the appearance of a star studded sky.

The flower blooms on a long stalk and floats on the surface. Each is 7-20 cm in diameter, has four sepals and numerous petals which vary in size and colour. The petals are usually pale whitish violet or less commonly light blue and occasionally pinkish purple.

The plant grows in streams, tanks and ponds throughout the low country and flowers almost all year round.

The National Tree is 'Na' or Mesua Nagassarium depicted in the 75 cent stamp released on June 25, 1986 to commemorate 100 years of forest conservation. It's a common tree seen everywhere and is easily distinguishable with its green bushy leaves.

The tree bears white flowers which were depicted in the Rs 2 stamp issued on April 1, 1982.

Making and storing food

Chlorophyll and growth

Plants are given their green colour by the pigment chlorophyll. This special substance enables a green plant to make its own food and so to grow. A plant's chlorophyll is found inside some of the cells of its body, particularly in its leaves but also in other green parts. Inside the cells, chlorophyll is contained in tiny packets called chloroplasts.

How does chlorophyll work? To answer this question, we must first ask another: what are plants made of?

Like other living organisms, a plant consists mostly of carbon substances and water. The carbon substances are what scientists call organic chemical compounds. These compounds are mostly made of carbon but also contain smaller amounts of other chemical elements, particularly nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur and phosphorus.

A green plant gets its carbon from carbon dioxide in the air and most of its other chemical elements from mineral salts in the soil. It gets the water it needs both from the soil and from moisture in the air. From the air plants take in gases through their leaves and stems and they take minerals from the soil through their roots.

Inside its green cells a plant builds up the simple compound carbon dioxide into more complicated compounds. This process is called photosynthesis. "Synthesis" means building-up, and "photo" refers to light energy, which is also needed. Normally, this light energy is provided by the sun, although plants can be made to grow in artificial light.

The first of the complicated carbon compounds to be formed inside the plant are sugars. These give the sweet taste to the sap of a plant. These sugars may be further built up to make larger compounds of two main kinds.

Starch is a food compound that the plant stores inside its cells, and which nourishes us when we eat bread and other starchy foods. Cellulose is a large compound also formed from sugars, but this is found mostly in the stiff, hard walls surrounding plant cells. We cannot digest cellulose as food, but we often wear it as clothes—cotton is nearly pure cellulose.

Other plant substances

Sugars, starch and cellulose are all examples of chemical compounds called carbohydrates. Besides carbohydrates, the bodies of plants contain many other chemical compounds, large and small. Important among the large ones are fats and plant proteins.

Fats, like carbohydrates, contain only the chemical elements carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. Unlike carbohydrates, however, fats are not built up inside plant cells from sugars, but from other small chemical compounds. They include liquid fats, or oils, which are often stored as food inside plant cells. The delicate membranes of these cells are partly made up of solid fats. We often use plant fats in the form of margarine.

Plant proteins are very large chemical compounds which contain nitrogen and sulphur as well as carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. They are of two main kinds. One kind is found in the structural parts of plants. For example, plant proteins occur, together with fats, in the cell membranes.

Most other proteins in a plant are the ones called enzymes. These are found in the liquid part of the cells. They are absolutely vital to the life of the plant because they enable most of the chemical reactions to take place in its cells. Taken all together, these reactions are called the plant's metabolism.

Storing food

A plant uses the food it makes in two ways. First, it uses some right away for energy. Like an animal, a plant needs energy to grow and make movements, although plant movements are usually much slower than those of animals.

Second, a plant needs to store food for times when food becomes difficult to make. For example, a plant needs to store food over cold, dark winter months so that it can grow quickly when spring comes. Also, the seeds of a plant usually contain a small store of food. This gives the young plant a start in life before it begins to make its own food by photosynthesis.

Plants store food in various parts of their bodies which often become swollen as a result. Onions and tulips store it in bulbs which are swollen leaves clustered around a short stem. Crocuses store food in a corm, a short, swollen stem with a bud. Both bulbs and corms "overwinter" underground before putting out new shoots in the spring.

Rhizomes are underground stems that can also store food, but they are longer than corms and grow horizontally through the soil. Some types of rhizomes are called tubers, a good example being the potato. Many plant roots become swollen with stored food and carrots, parsnips, and turnips are just some examples of roots we eat. Whenever we eat beans, we are consuming foods stored by plants in their seeds.

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