86 THE NATURE-STUDY OF PLANTS 
It is as well to pick out three or four of the largest 
and to place them on a potful of damp light soil 
during the warm summer months; there is no need 
to bury them or even to press them in. We should 
put a sheet of glass over the top 
of the pot for a couple of days 
so as to keep them thoroughly 
moist. If, at the end of that 
time, we remove one of them 
and hold it up to the light we 
shall see near the top thin areas 
or occasionally holes between 
the ribs. We must then replace 
it, and we should keep daily 
Fic. 32.—Seedling of the watch for a short time; within 
Garden Scabious. Na- : 
taal Give. a week, if the seeds are sound, we 
shall find that germination has 
commenced. The radicle pushes out of the top of the 
seed and at once grows straight downward ; it always 
appears exactly opposite one of the thin places between 
the ribs and grows right through it into the soil 
beneath. Thus the seed is so firmly anchored that there 
is never any difficulty about the cotyledons being 
withdrawn. Within a few days they get completely 
free and spread apart to set about their business, the 
husk of the seed remains pinned to the soil where it 
soon decays, and so it comes about that, given a suffi- 
ciently high temperature, soft soil and adequate 
moisture, the seeds of the Scabious need be neither 
anchored nor covered over when sown, although the 
seedling possesses green aerial cotyledons. We must 
not, however, fall into the mistake of thinking that 
they dispense with the necessity of anchorage alto- 
gether, but instead of depending upon outside help 

