86 A NEW ZEALAND NATURALIST'S CALENDAR. 



very cold, there is nothing in our mild winter season to 

 stop their immediate development. Pick up a maple fruit 

 and take off the outer covering so as to expose the seed, 

 and you will be surprised to find how far advanced the 

 future plant is. Its first pair of leaves are lying there 

 all green (though hidden from the light) and ready for 

 action, while its root is well developed. 



The different extent to which the rudimentary plants 

 found inside of seeds are developed is as interesting and as 

 diverse as the varying degrees of development shown in 

 young birds when hatched out of the egg. It is well 

 known that chickens can run about and peck very soon 

 after they come out of the shell, and that some gallin- 

 aceous birds, such as grouse and partridges, are even still 

 more advanced. Those who have had some acquaintance 

 with country life in the old land know that if a grouse 

 is flushed when her covey is hatching the old bird will fly 

 off with a loud alarm cry, at sound of which the chicks run 

 off to cover in all directions, some of them perhaps 

 carrying part of their shells on their backs, because 

 they have not had time to get rid of their former domicile. 



On the other hand, what a helpless little creature a 

 newly hatched sparrow or a pigeon squab is, and how 

 utterly dependent it is for weeks on the care of the parent 

 birds as it slowly develops its limbs and feathers while still 

 in the nest. 



Somewhat similar is it with seeds. Some are ready to 

 spring into active life-work at once, others take weeks, 

 months, or even years, to develop their embryos into plants 

 able to feed themselves. The seed of a cress plant, for 

 instance, has its first root and pair of young seed leaves 

 well developed as soon as it is ripe, and if sown in 

 damp warm weather both of these organs are able to 

 assume their functions and to support the new plant in the 

 course of a few days. But if you split open a cocoa-nut 

 you will find the other type. At one end of the nut near 

 the three finger marks is a small rudimentary plant 

 which will take months to force its way out of its shell, 

 and which will require to absorb nearly all the food 



