Cultivated-Plant Study 



THE SWEET PEA 

 Teacher's Story 



649 



MONG the most attractive of the seeds which 

 make up the treasure of the children's seed 

 packets, the sweet peas are of the prettiest. 

 They are smooth, little white or brown 

 globules, marked with a scar on the side, showing where 

 they were attached to the pod. One of these peas divides 

 readily into two sections ; and after it has been soaked in 

 water for twenty-four hours, the germ of the future plant 

 may, with the aid of a lens, be seen within it. After 

 planting, the sprout pushes through the seed-coat at a 

 point very near the scar, and leaf shoots emerge from 

 the same place; but the two act very differently. The leaf lifts 

 upward toward the light, and the root plunges down into the soil. 

 As the plant grows, it absorbs the food stored in the seed; but the seed 

 remains below ground and does not lift itself into the air, as happens with 

 the bean. The root forms many slender branches, near the tips of which 

 may be seen the fringe of feeding roots, which take up the food and water 

 from the soil. The first leaves of the pea seedling put forth no tendrils, 

 but otherwise look like the later ones. The leaves grow alternately on the 

 stalk, and they are compound, each having from three to seven leaflets. 

 The petiole'is winged, as is also the stem of the plant. There is a pair of 

 large, clasping stipules at the base of each leaf. If we compare one of 

 these leaves with a spray of tendrils, we can see that they resemble each 

 other in the following points : The basal leaflets of the petiole are similar 

 and the stipules are present in each case; but the leaflets nearest the tip 

 are marvelously changed to little, stiff stems with a quirl at the tip of each 

 ready to reach out and hook upon any object that offers surface to cling 

 to. Sometimes we find a leaflet paired with a tendril. The sweet pea 

 eould not thrive without a support outside of itself. 



Of course, the great upper petal of the sweet pea blossom is called the 

 banner! It stands aloft and proclaims the sweet pea as open ; but before 

 this occurs, it tenderly enfolds all the inner part of the flower in the 

 unopened bud, and when the flower fades it again performs inis duty. 

 The wings are also well named; for these two petals which hang like a 

 peaked roof above the keel, seem like wings just ready to open in flight. 

 The two lower petals are sewed together in one 

 of Nature's invisible seams, making a long, 

 curved treasure chest resembling the keel of a 

 boat, and it has thus been called. Within the 

 keel are hidden the pistil and stamens. The 

 ovary is long, pod-shaped and downy; from 

 its tip the style projects, as strong as a wire, 

 curving upwards, and covered with a brush of 

 fine, white hairs; at the very tip of the style, 

 and often projecting slightly from the keel, is 

 the stigma. Around the sides and below the 

 ovary and style, are nine stamens, their fila- 

 ments broadening and uniting to make a white, silken tube about the 

 ovary, or young pod. From the tip of this stamen-tube, each of the nine 



Sf 1 m< " s 



Blossom sweet pea with parts 

 labelled. 



