59^ Home Nature-Study Course. 



Some may show great vitality and vigor, others, under the same condi- 

 tions, may shoot feebly or not at all. 



Other seeds may be planted in sand or soil to observe the way the 

 slender cotyledons escape from their seed-coats, " undoubling " as they 

 staighten up to the light. 

 Observations by pupils. — 



1. Notice the seeds before planting. Are they of tolerably uniform 

 size, plump and full, or appearing shrivelled and old ? 



2. How many days were the seeds in the tester or in the ground 

 before growth was noticed ? Did any fail to grow ? 



3. Which started first, the rootlet or the leaf shoot? Did they 

 emerge from the same slit in the seed-coat or from different parts? 



4. If it is possible to study the rootlets with a lens, describe what 

 you see on them. 



5. Does the leaf-shoot come through the ground end first? How 

 long from its first appearance before it " undoubles? " 



6. After the seed leaf straightens up, does it continue to grow? 



Facts for teachers. — Onion seeds vary greatly in their power of rapid and 

 vigorous germination, and the farmer or gardener is very miwise who plants 

 without testing the seed, which may lack vitality from being badly cured and 

 kept, or from being too old. In the tester they should show white points of the 

 rootlets in from five days to a week and should be peeping through soil in from 

 a week to ten days. By the aid of a cheap lens the root-hairs or feeding roots 

 may be seen. The leaf appears bent double, with the tip held in the seed until 

 it uses up the stored food ; it then is released and straightens up, but grows no 

 more for it is only the cotyledon or seed-leaf. Before it is free the next leaf 

 which is to carry on the growth will have started. 



Other ivays of propagation. — Onions are also grown from " sets," which are 

 small bulbs formed underground by the "multiplier" or "potato" onion; from 

 " tops," which are small bulblets produced on the fruiting stems, instead of 

 flowers and seed, and from " multipliers," to keep up a succession of " sets." 

 These kinds, sets, tops, and multipliers are of special value in growing early 

 crops, while the main, late crop is grown from seed. Sets, tops and multipliers 

 may all be potted in the schoolroom and their manner of growth watched. It 

 is from these that the early " bunch onions " of the spring market are obtained 

 Observe that the " potatoes " always form a bunch of from three to a do/.en 

 little " sets ; " that the " sets " grow big and form the potato or multiplier, which, 

 instead of being many concentric layers, is broken up into many parts, each one 

 of which produces new growtli : that the "tops" or "buttons" just increase in 

 size witliout any sucli divisions within. If left in the ground long enough it will 

 send up a stalk on which there will be more " buttons." 



Rchilives of the onion. — Besides the great lily trade, the onion has many 

 closer relatives of its own family name of Allium. Many children have found 

 beds of wild leek in the woods, with its wide, fiat leaves, which wither .'uid fall 

 before the tall heads of white flowers appear in summer. And many boys and 

 girls on the farm have had a back-ache caused by searching the pasture and dig- 

 ging out the field garlic, which spoiled the milk and butter. But always some 



