CHAPTER III. 



HOW BARLEY GROWS. 



Having given a general outline of the composition of 

 a plant, the reader will be prepared to understand 

 tlie process of growth of a simple grain of barley. If 

 a grain be taken, and the outer husk and inner skin 

 are removed from the thick end of it, on its smoother 

 or ungrooved surface a small conical body will be found 

 lodged in the white mealy portion of the grain, and 

 darker than it. This is the emhryo of a young jjlant 

 (Plate 2, fig. 1) awaiting some exciting cause to bring 

 its latent powers into action. Place a few of these grains 

 whole in moist earth for three or four days, and watch the 

 result. On examining the grain at the end of that time, 

 it will be found that, although in external appearance it 

 only exhibits a swollen appearance, yet, on opening it, or 

 tearing away the husk, its internal characters have very 

 much changed. Instead of the white mealy mass, we 

 have a pasty-looking substance, the embryo has elongated 

 considerably (fig. 2), and a number of slender filaments 



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