WINTER PLANTS 



CHAPTER V. 



AFTER THE RAINS. 



How and when did they come up, these wayside seed- 

 lings? Did you watch? Did you catch the pale little 

 arches lifting the soil ? Or had the little pairs of leaves got 

 out before you knew the seeds were awake ? You were 

 alert if you saw it all, for the seedlings come very quickly 

 at the call of the first rain. Of course you were not sur- 

 prised to see that the first two leaves were unlike the next 

 ones, for you would remember the seed leaves of the plants 

 you grew in the house. Did you find out that the pairs of 

 leaves that look like little, green, Indian arrow-heads belong 

 to that common weed, the malva? The filaree is easy to 

 make out; the grass comes up like the corn and leaves its 

 cotyledon in the ground; the bur-clover seeds stay in the 

 bur and sprout there. And this is a very good plan the 

 bur-clover has. Germinate some bur-clover seeds on top 

 of moist earth, and you will see what trouble they have 

 getting into the soil. The root-tip wants to go down, as 

 root- tips always do, but the seed is very light and it is not 

 held down by the earth above it, so the growing root has 

 nothing to push against, and simply slips along the surface 

 until its root-hairs anchor it so that it can bore its way into 

 the soil. But the burs that hold the clover seeds are more 

 or less covered with dust; when it rains they stick in the 

 wet soil, and their little teeth anchor the seeds so firmly that 



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