8I 
seed coat peeped a tiny white thing, looking like the 
bill of a chick that is pecking its way out of the egg- 
shell which has become too small to hold it. 
Very quickly this little whi’ tip grew longer. It 
curved over and bent downwa: “piercing its 
way through the cotton wool into the water. ae 
— 
About this time the pot garden began to 
show signs of a disturbance. Here and there 
I saw what looked like the top of a thick green hoop 
(Fig. 88). 
What had happened, do you think? 
Why, first this bean had sucked in from the damp 
earth so much water that it had grown too fat and 
big for the seed coat; and it had torn this open, just 
like the other bean, pushing out its little white tip; and 
this tip had bent down into the earth and taken a good 
hold there, lengthening into a real root, and sending 
out little root hairs that fastened it down still more 
firmly. 
But it was not satisfied to do all its growing below. 
Its upper part now straightened itself out, and started 
mentrup mto the air: From a:hoop it turned “into 2 
stem which lifted the bean clear above the earth 
(Fig. 89). 
This bean was no longer the round object we usually 
call by that name; for its two halves had opened and 
spread outward, and from between these two halves 
grew a pair of young leaves. 
As these leaves grew larger, the two half-beans 
began to shrink, growing smaller and more withered 
all the time (Fig. 90). 
DANA’S PLANTS. —6 
