FRUIT AND SEED. 



below it is a minute projection. If the bean 

 were placed in moist sand and allowed to 

 germinate this bud would be seen to de- 

 velop into two green leaves and the little 

 projection to push downward into a root. 

 The little leaves con- 

 tinue to grow and the 

 old halves of the bean 

 are pushed up into the 

 air as shown in Fig. 2. 

 These dry halves soon 

 fall away ; but they 

 have performed an im- 

 portant function in fur- 

 nishing food to the 

 young plant while it was germinating and 

 establishing itself in the soil. They are 

 therefore like leaves in some respects, and 

 they are called the seed-leaves or cotyledons. 

 These thick cotyledons with the little bud 

 and the initial stemlet constitute 

 the embryo. Sometimes this em- 

 bryo does not occupy the whole of 

 the seed, but is imbedded in a mass 

 of starch, which contributes to its 

 support when it germinates. This 

 is illustrated in the seed of the pine, Fig. 3. 

 The seed, then, consists essentially of an em- 



Fig. 2. 



Fig. 3. 



