Part 6

The hedges were becoming greener every day. The birds were heard singing in the woods, and little green shoots were springing up everywhere under foot.

Frank and Tom brought home opening buds of all kinds, and watched the hedges and trees as they walked daily to school.

Two of the bean seeds were dug up out of the sawdust every second or third day. In this way the boys were able to see exactly how a bean plant grows from seed.

First the seed swells out; then the skin bursts, and the little plant in between the two masses of plant-food begins to grow.

The root always grows down straight. The little shoot always grows upwards.

After the root has grown about an inch it begins to branch; and in about two weeks these branch branch-roots are searching the soil for food all around the main root.

The shoot meanwhile is growing in length and thickness. It remains folded up until it reaches the air and light. Then its leaves open out and turn from a creamy colour to bright green.

One small box of seeds was placed in a dark cupboard. These beans grew much more quickly than those grown in the light; but they were pale, lank, and sickly. They never turned green.

From this the boys learned that the green colour of leaves and stems is due to the action of light.

Uncle George took a few grains of wheat and placed them upon wet blotting-paper. A tumbler turned upside down was placed over them.

In a few days the children saw that a few small roots had grown out from the end of each grain.

When these roots had grown to about half an inch in length, great tufts of long slender hairs sprang out all round them near their tips. These, their uncle told them, were “root-hairs.”

The root-hairs of a plant are so fine that they are always torn off when we dig or pull a plant out of the ground. It is by means of these slender root-hairs that the plant is able to suck water out of the soil; and this water always contains a very little plant-food in it.

The boys noticed that the wheat grain did not sprout in the same way as the bean seed. Instead of one stout little root, three usually came out. The tiny shoot seemed to grow from the outside of the grain, and the two large masses of plant-food were missing.

Some wheat seeds were soaked and cut down the middle. With the aid of the glass, the boys saw that in the wheat seed the baby plant is attached to one large mass of plant-food, made up of flour with an outside layer of bran.

Their uncle then told them that all the flowering plants in the world are of two great families, namely, those whose seeds have only one food store, like the wheat grain, and those whose seeds have two, like the bean.

Exercises on Lesson V.

1. Explain all that happens when a horse-chestnut bud opens. 2. Why do the buds which you force indoors wither after they open? 3. What changes come over your bean seeds as they grow? 4. Do the young plants draw any food from the sawdust? If not, what feeds them? 5. What three things does a seed need in order to start growing?

1. Magnified sections of Maize and Wheat Seeds, showing Young Plant, Food Store, etc. 2. Germination of Maize. 3. Maize growing in Sawdust. 4. Maize growing in Tap Water. 5. Bean growing in Bottle over Water.

VI.—MORE ABOUT SEEDS.

It was raining in torrents outside, and the boys were a little upset inside, for it was Saturday. They always looked forward to Saturday, for it was their great rambling day.

“I’m afraid we can’t get out to-day,” said Frank, sadly.

“I’m afraid not,” said his uncle. “But that is no reason why we should sulk. We have those maize seeds to look over, you know, and by the time we have done that perhaps the rain will have stopped.”

While Frank and Tom were bringing the boxes of seeds, Uncle George and Dolly were busy getting out knives, glasses, mounted needles, and the books they made their notes and sketches in.

There were four small boxes in all. Each box had been sown with maize or Indian corn at times a week apart, so that the plants in one box were five weeks old, in the next four weeks old, and so on.

“We will begin as we did with the bean. Let us cut the seed open first.” As he spoke, Uncle George laid some soaked maize seeds on the table.

“If you look at these seeds carefully, you will notice a large mark on one of the flat sides of each.”

“I see it,” said Frank. “It is shaped something like a cone, and its broad end is at the narrow end of the seed.”