60 THE NATURE-STUDY OF PLANTS 
evidence as to the character of human parents: let 
us then turn to the seed for information about the 
Vegetable World. 
I. Tur SEEDLING’S PATRIMONY 
If we take a seed of a Columbine or a Monkshood 
and plant it in the soil, sooner or later we shall find 
that it produces what we call 
a seedling. Inside the seed is 
a tiny little plantlet, known as 
the embryo, that develops and 
grows into the seedling which 
we see in the illustration. 
Now, growth is the result of 
adequate nutrition, and we may 
legitimately wonder where the 
embryo gets its food from. It 
is easy enough to understand 
how the seedling itself manages, 
because it is provided with 
roots, and its green leaves are 
able to manufacture what is 
Fic, 17.—Seedling of the needed; but where did the food 
Monkshood. Reduced. Gome from that enabled the 
C, cotyledon; BR, root; FL, little snippet of an embryo 
ag ip aay ground inside the seed to develop a 
long root and green leaves ? 
In order to understand the answer to this question 
we must cut a seed open. We shall then see the 
hard seed-coat on the outside and the embryo at one 
end, though it may take some finding ; all the rest 
is composed of a mass of cells which fills the whole 
of the rest of the space inside the coat. 

