76 
and your glass need to be very good to show you that 
this little object is a@ baby peony plant. Fig. 85 gives 
the little plant as it would look if taken out of the seed. 
Every ripe seed holds a baby plant; and to become a 
grown-up plant, it needs just what hoy and girl babies 
need, — food and drink and air. 
But shut up so tight in its seed shell, how can it get 
these? 
Well, in this peony seed its food is close at hand. It 
is packed away inside the seed, all about the little plant. 
In the picture (Fig. 84), everything except the little 
white spot, which shows the plant, is baby food, — 
food that is all prepared to be eaten by a delicate 
little plant, and that is suited to its needs just as_ 
Fic. 85 milk is suited to the needs of your little sister or 
brother. 
The little leaves of the baby plant take in the 
food that is needed to make it grow fat and strong. 
Now, how does the baby plant*get water to drink ? 
I have asked your teacher to soak over night some 
peas that have been dried for planting, and to bring 
to school to-day a handful of these, and also a handful 
which have not been soaked. She will pass these 
about, and you can see how different the soaked ones 
are from the others. Those that have not been in the 
water look dried and’ wrinkled and old, almost dead in 
fact; while those which have been soaked are nearly 
twice as large. They look fat, and fresh, and full of 
life. Now, what has happened to them? 
Why, all night long they have been sucking in water 
through tiny openings in the seed shell; and_ this 
—— 
