How Garden Plants Come Up. 



BY HERBERT W. FAULKNER, WASHINGTON, 



CONNECTICUT. 



For the benefit of boys and girls that 

 are planting- war gardens, let me note 

 a few of my observations and some of 

 the details that I had to master in 

 learning the art of gardening. 



To keep my garden clean, I needed 

 to know the difference between sprout- 

 ing plants and young weeds and. since 

 the first leaves appearing above ground 



which emerges a single green leaf, at 

 first tightly twisted but rapidly unfold- 

 ing into a grass-like blade, but readily 

 distinguishable from grass by its width 

 and roundish tip. 



The following plants send up hooked 

 stems and afterward spread out two 

 cotvledons: beets and chard, lone - and 

 narrow, colored red on the under sur- 

 face ; leeks and onions, slender, round 

 stem, splitting into two very narrow 

 cotyledons; carrots, tomatoes, parsnips, 

 all having two narrow cotyledons, but 



CABBAGE Ler* BEFT TQMATO ; Fg^SWfP ; CORN 



BEAN 





-■-•-* ■" ^ 



(the cotyledons) usually differ from 

 the leaves of the older plant, I had to 

 learn what to look for, so as to uproot 

 the intruders and leave the welcome 

 guests. 



Seedlings of different families "come 

 up" in different ways. Cabbages, caul- 

 iflowers, turnips and radishes send up 

 two leaves closely pressed together. 

 These open into winged or notched 

 leaves as shown in the sketch. 



Beans and peas first appear as a 

 green hook or loop ; then the entire 

 seed rises from the ground and spiffing 

 open forms two thick wings on the 

 stem, conveying the impression that 

 the plant is upside down. Above these 

 seeds appear two leaves shaped like 

 pointed shields, and later the true 

 leaves, three-parted and spear-shaped. 



Corn pricks through the ground as a 

 sharp, white tooth or horn, out of 



increasing in width in the order named. 

 Parsnips usually push the seed cover 

 up with the plant and cast it off whilst 

 unfolding. 



Potatoes, which sprout from sliced 

 tubers, send up succulent, green leaves 

 of the usual type. 



Since weed seeds usually sprout 

 more quickly than desirable seeds, by 

 waiting for the latter to appear we are 

 in danger of letting the former "get 

 ahead" of us. Gardeners avoid this 

 difficulty by planting a few quickly 

 growing seeds, such as radishes or let- 

 tuce, sparsely in the rows of other 

 vegetables. These, germinating quick- 

 ly, sketch out the planted rows in lines 

 of green, and thus the spaces between 

 may be cultivated with safety. We 

 know that "worry kills," so only by 

 constantly worrying the weeds can we 

 hope to kill them. 



