We may first pull up the two plants. The first one 



It may happen, however, — as it did in a pan of seed which I 

 sowed a few days ago — that one or two of the plants may look 

 like that shown in Fig. 2. Here the seed seems to 

 have come up on top of the plant, and one is reminded 

 of the curious way in which beans come up on the 

 stalk of the young plant. If we were to study the 

 matter, however, — as we may do at a future time — 

 we should find a great difference in the ways in which 

 the squashes and the beans raise their 

 seeds out of the ground. It is not our 



1 J 3- Germination just 



purpose to compare the squash and beguming. 

 the bean at this time, but we are curious to know 

 why one of these squash plants brings its seed up out 

 of the ground whilst all the others do not. In order 

 to find out why it is, we must ask the plant, and this 

 2. Squash plant g^,sV\n^ is what wc Call au experiment. 



which has ° 



brought the 



seed-coats out ... 



o/the ground. {^\g_ I ) will bc sccn to have the seed-coats still at- 

 tached to the very lowest part of the stalk below the soil, but the 

 other plant has no seed at that point. We will now plant more 

 seeds, a dozen or more of them, so that we shall 

 have enough to examine two or three times a 

 day for several days. A day or two after the 

 seeds are planted, we shall find a Httle point or 

 root-like portion breaking out of the sharp end of the 

 seed, as shown in Fig. 3. A day later this root portion 

 has grown to be as long as the seed itself (Fig. 4), and it has 



turned directly downwards into the soil. But 



there is another most curious thing about this 



germinating seed. Just where the root is 



5- Zot'growt'h'!^ breaking out of the seed (shown at a in Fig. 4), 



there is a little peg or projection. In Fig. 5, 



about a day later, the root has grown still longer, and this 



peg seems to be forcing the seed apart. In Fig. 6, however, 



it will be seen that the seed is really being forced apart by 



the stem or the stalk above the peg, for this stem is now 



growing longer. The lower lobe of the seed has attached 



