MICHIGAN EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS 345 



You perhaps remember that beans grow inside of 

 pods and when you tried to shell them, they stuck more 

 or less to the pod. Yes, and here is the scar where the 

 seed broke away from the pod! 



Let us look at the dry peas. We will suppose they 

 Fig. 1. Edge ofaswoi- are an early kind grown in the garden and you saved 

 len boan showing seed- them for Seed this year: but they look as though they 



scar between a small pim- • -i p a\ ^■^ i , i r, *^ 



pie and a minute hole. Were mixed lor they are so unlike each other, oome 

 are so smooth and so nearly the shape of a bail that they can hardly lie 

 still; some have one or more dimples, and others are more or less wrinkled. 

 They are mostly cream-colored. The scar, unlike that of the bean, has a 

 little slit lengthwise through the middle, and the depression about it is 

 narrower than the one we saw in the beans. The little shiny pimple of 

 the pea is much farther from its scar than it was on the bean and no hole 

 can be discovered at the opposite end of the scar. 



We will suppose that some of the youngest bojs and girls became tired . 

 at this point, and began to look out of the window, or they had lessons to 

 learn or it was mo3t time for recess or for dinner, and we informally put the 

 beans and peas out of sight. 



Last night in preparing for this second lesson, the teacher was thought- 

 ful enough to put some beans and peas in water, and a few minutes 

 ago she put another lot in water. How queer! The beans that were in 

 water for a few moments are much wrinkled in every direction as though 

 their jackets were to large, but the peas are still smooth as when put into 

 the water. 



In a little while the peas will show irregular wrin- 

 kled patches and by that time the wrinkles on some of 

 the beans will begin to disappear. Perhaps some of the 

 pupils observed that the wrinkles on beans and peas, 

 which had been wet only for a short time may be explain- 

 ed in this way: the covering became soft and enlarged 

 watfrfor a'^feVm^iautes^ before the thicker portion inside had swollen. 



beforr'ih9'''thicke''r^por^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^ *^® ^^^"^ ^^^ P®^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^ater 



tious inside. over night. You see they are all smooth without a 



dimple or wrinkle and they have swollen considerably, but they still differ 

 in color, shape and size. On the edge of the bean near where the small 

 hole was found, a little ridge appears, and the corresponding part of the 

 pea shows a conspicuous ridge of a lighter color than the rest of the pea. 

 On carefully removing the seed-coat from a bean, the depression which 

 was beneath the scar, is still seen, and near it is a rounded part which 

 made the ridge in the seed-coat, and this ridge is fastened to the two large 

 seed-leaves of the bean. This small rounded object holding the seed- 

 leaves together is the first stem the plantlet has and its behavior in future 

 IS to be carefully watched. 



Between the seed leaves is a white flat, two-pointed 

 object, to be noticed in sprouting beans. 



On removing the seed-coat from a soft pea, the 

 rounded light- colored point is more prominent than it 

 was in the bean, and there is a little thing (bud) 

 between the seed-leaves. 

 Fig. 3. Bean split in ^^t US again tum our attention to the seeds placed 

 ^'^o^athe&tststem,i>. in and upou the earth in the boxes. If the school- 



t he nrst true leaves slight- • i-i i i i i i i • ,i . , 



ly enlarged. room IS likely to become very cold during the night, 



44 



