THE BEGINNING OF LIFE. 1% 
kle upon the perforated plate a few mustard- 
seeds, and cover the whole with a small flower- 
pot. In about a day, or a day and a half, life 
has evidently begun, and 
its first stages may be 
watched, and will form a 
most interesting amuse- 
ment. The accompany- 
ing figure contains a view of the whole of this 
simple apparatus. 
Placed in the circumstances we have described, 
the seed begins to swell, and becomes sensibly 
softer than before: this arises from its imbibing 
moisture from surrounding objects, or, if half 
immersed in water, from that fluid itself. It 
swells more and more until its outer coats split 
open, and the tiny head of the young plant is seen 
peeping forth as a little yellowish white portion 
at one end of the seed. ‘This increases in length 
and in size, and by-and-by a sharp glance will 
detect the appearance of another little portion, 
which also lengthens, and while the other in- 
variably strikes upwards, the latter as invariably 
strikes in the opposite direction, or downwards. 
It is easy to guess now which portions of a plant 
C 
