a:be 1bope ot HJears to Come 47 



double them up and lay them back m their case. 

 Nature's fingers are not so clumsy as ours. 



Between the two leaves is a little white stem. The 

 two leaves unfold, and in a few days the air and sun 

 have made them bright green. The stem between 

 them thrusts a little root into the earth ; this root is 

 furnished with hairs. When the root is well formed 

 and the two seed leaves have reached full size, a bud 

 has formed in the axil between them. This is the 

 growing point of the new tree. This bud presently 

 opens into a pair of well-formed maple leaves. 



As these leaves increase the seed-leaves diminish ; 

 the plant is feeding upon them. The ascending stem 

 presses its first j^air of leaves upward, forms between 

 them two more, and then two more, and thus on. 

 Small branches are formed by the end of the summer, 

 the seed-leaves are exhausted, and the plant is doing 

 its own work. 



It is a good plan early in March to fill a box with 

 rich, moist earth and plant in it several seeds each 

 of peas, beans, flax, morning glory and corn. Mark 

 the places of each kind, and take up a seed at a time 

 during the process of growth, to mark the changes, 

 and leave one seed of each to become a well-estab- 

 lished plantlet. If the box has hot more than three 

 inches of earth in it, and a clean slab of white marble 

 is laid under the earth, in the bottom, the growing 



