82 
Why was this, do you suppose ? 
To make clear the reason of this, to show just why 
the two halves of the bean grew smaller as the rest of 
the young bean plant grew larger, I must go back a 
way. 
Turn to-the picture of the peony seed (Wig eae 
- There you can see how the baby plant is 
packed away in the midst of a quantity of 
baby food. And in the picture of the morn- 
ing-glory seed (Fig. 86) you see the same 
thing. 
You remember that day by day the baby 
plant ate more and more of this food, and 
kept growing stronger and bigger, and that 
all this time the store of food kept grownig 
smaller and smaller. 
Now, if you cut open the bean, you do not 
see a tiny plant set in the midst of a store of 
Fic. go food. 
Why is this? This is because the baby 
bean plant keeps its food in its own leaves. 
The seed coat of the bean is filled by these leaves, 
for each half of the bean is really a seed leaf. In these 
two thick leaves is stored all the food that is necessary 
to the life of the baby plant; and because of all this 
food which they hold, the bean plant is able to get a 
better start in life than many other young plants. 
If you soak and strip off its seed coat, and pull apart 
the two thick leaves, you will find a tiny pair of new 
leaves already started (Fig. 91); but you will see noth- 
ing of the sort in the seed of the morning-glory, for the 
