ELEMENTARY WORK IN BOTANY. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Fig. 1. a. Bur-clover seed sprouting. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF PLANT LIFE. 



If the first rain of the wet season is followed by warm, 

 sunny weather, specks of green will soon appear among the 



dry stems of last year's weeds; 

 and in fence corners or other eddy 

 nooks where summer winds have 

 drifted seeds and covered them 

 with dust, you may find perfect 

 mats of baby plants. With a 

 shovel skim off a few square 

 inches of this plant bearing soil, 

 and carefully examine it. Except 

 a few green needles, which you recognize as spears of grass, 

 most of these little plants consist of 

 white stems, each of which bears at 

 the top a pair of green leaves. Look- 

 ing sharply you may see a tiny bud 

 between the leaves; or, in older 

 plants, this may have in its growth 

 developed other leaves which curi- 

 ously enough are not like the first 



, ,~\ ... - -i-ii 1 showing a pair of bifid leaves (coty- 



two. bearchmg through the shovel- ledons). 



ful of earth you may find plants in all stages of growth, 





FI ? . 2. Eschschoitzia seedling, 



in 



