i8 SAGACITY AND MORALITY OF PLANTS. 



wonder. Let a man take a grain of wheat, just as 

 it is, and keep it in some dry, cold place. No 

 change occurs ; but if he places it in a damp, warm 

 soil, by and by he beholds a marvellous transforma- 

 tion ! The plant sprouts and grows. How is 

 this? 



Until lately people regarded growth as a mystical 

 and mysterious process altogether, and so saved 

 themselves the necessity of any further explanation. 

 Others invented phrases to account for it (not a bad 

 method in philosophy), and such people wisely said 

 that growth was due to the vitality of the seed or 

 the virtues of the soil. The latter was a powerful 

 affirmative, from which only a dejected few dared 

 to turn away unsatisfied. 



Let us see, in a quiet and matter-of-fact way, 

 what actually does occur when a 

 seed is placed in the ground. 



Perhaps a botanist would 

 notice, first of all, whether such 

 seed had one lobe or two. If 

 we take off the outer skin of a 

 bean or acorn, we see two halves 



Fig. 3.— Bean in Section, or COtyledoUS. No SUch appcar- 

 c. one of the cotyledons ; ...,,, 



/, young stem ; r, the ance, howcvcr, IS visiblc m a 



young root. grain of wheat, barley, or maize, 



for these are seeds with one lobe only. The 



broadest classification of flowering -plants is based 



on this seed-difference — the two-lobed being termed 



