Cultivated-Plant Study 683 



5. Describe the meat of the seed? Does it divide naturally into two 

 parts? Can you see the little germ? Have you ever tried roasting and 

 salting pumpkin and squash seeds, to prepare them for food as almonds 

 and peanuts are prepared? 



6. Plant a pumpkin seed in damp sand and give it warmth and light. 

 From which end does it sprout ? What comes first, the root or the leaves ? 

 What part of the seed forms the seed-leaves? 



7. Describe how the pumpkin sprout pries open the shell to its seed, 

 in order to get its seed-leaves out. What happens if it does not pull them 

 out? Which part of the seedling pumpkin appears above ground first? 



8. How do the true leaves differ in shape from the seed-leaves. What 

 is the use of the seed-leaves to the plant ? 



Ah! on Thanksgiving day, -when from East and from West, 

 From North and from South come the pilgrim and guest, 

 When the gray-haired New-Englander sees round his board 

 The old broken lines of affection restored, 

 When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more, 

 And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before, 

 What moistens the lip and brightens the eye? 

 What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie? 



Oh, fruit loved of boyhood! the old days recalling, 



When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling 



When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin, 



Glaring out through the dark with a candle within! 



When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune, 



Our chair a broad pumpkin our lantern the moon, 



Telling tales of the fairy who travelled like steam, 



In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team! 



-J. G. WHITTIER. 



