CHAPTER VI 



LIVING CONDITIONS ; THE SEED 



Questions. 1. What makes seeds sprout? 2. How do plants and 

 animals remain alive while inactive during the winter? 3. Can seeds 

 sprout without soil ? 4. Can plants live without soil ? 5. Why are seeds 

 killed if they are allowed to become damp ? 6. Why does salt water kill 

 some seeds ? 7. What is necessary for all living things ? 8. Why do not 

 fish drown in the water ? 9. Why cannot fish live out of water ? 



51. All life dependent. Fishes live only in water ; the trap- 

 door spider and the horned toad (which is not a toad at all, but 

 a lizard) are found only in the desert. The butterfly is a crea- 

 ture of air and sunshine, but the tapeworm is at home in the 

 dark recesses of a little boy's intestines. The green slime seems 

 to thrive on the bark of a tree, but nothing less than the inside 

 of a blood cell will serve for the malaria plasmodium. Reindeer 

 moss (really a kind of lichen) will live under the snows of 

 Iceland, but the banana plant finds the winters of Florida too 

 severe. Protoplasm is truly wonderful, since it can live under 

 all these different conditions. What conditions are really essen- 

 tial to life ? Is it not rather true that we find a different kind of 

 life in each set of circumstances? 



52. Awakening life. In winter most of the plants of the pre- 

 ceding season are dead. Of those that are not dead most are 

 either bare of all foliage or reduced to some kind of resting 

 state. There are roots and stems lying dormant (sleeping) 

 underground. There are millions of seeds that look as lifeless 

 as pebbles until circumstances favorable to life activity appear. 

 In general, similar facts may be observed regarding animals, 



53. Sprouting of seeds. Seeds of many different kinds are 

 kept in boxes or jars for months at a stretch, or even for years, 

 and there is no sign that any of them have sprouted. The gar- 



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