MICHIGAN EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS 



35t 



After a kernel has roots half an inch long, we are able to pick out the 

 round spot near the base of the kernel and tind the roots at one end 

 and the stem at the other are held together, leaving a mealy and 

 gummy portion in the covering of the grain. This gummy portion is 

 intended to nourish the young plant which has one very small seed 

 leaf. 



Where kernels of buckwheat are placed on wet soil and kept covered 

 with something to keep them from drying, the first thing to appear is a tiny, 

 smooth root coming always from the pointed end of the kernel, and if the 

 point of the kernel is uppermost this root usually turns at once down toward 

 the soil. This root of the buckwheat does not burst out of the larger white 

 sheath as do those of the wheat, but they are smooth and of even size, as were 

 those of the bean and pea. The hairs on the root do not begin to appear 

 till the root is about as long as the grain. The root-hairs do not cover all 

 of the tender portion outside the hull, but have a portion at the base as 

 well as the tip which is smooth. This smooth portion next the kernel is a 

 genuine stem and not a root, and is to the buckwheat what the smooth 

 stem of the bean displayed between seed-leaves and roots is to the bean. 



After kernels of buckwheat have sent out sprouts half an inch long, it 

 will be well to opfn one or two. On removing the dark- brown hull, we 

 shall still see a lighter-colored covering, with a queer yellowish-brown cir- 

 cular spot, containing a darker speck in the center, where the seed was 

 attached to the lower end of the hull or covering. 



If we carefully remove the light-colored seed-coat, if 

 not too dry we find a white mealy substance surround- 

 ing two wrinkled pieces attached to the slender white 

 stem, one part of which had escaped through the small 

 end. These thin, wrinkled pieces are the seed-leaves and 

 correspond to those of the bean and pea. In beans and 

 peas all the nourishment was stored in the very thick 

 Fig. 17 Grain of geed-lcaves, while kernels of both wheat and buckwheat 



o u. c K w ri ft ft L cut 



across, showing the have a starchy substance outside the seed-leaves. 

 wTndi^Dg^h^outhth1 The slender root of the buckwheat winds about on the 

 mealy portion. damp soil for an inch, or sometimes even two inches, 



before a few side rootlets begin to appear near what is the upper end of 

 the main root where it joins the smooth stem. 



Fig. 18. Buckwheat germinating on wet sand 

 showing a stem at c, and one long root, a, b. 



