16 Elementary Work in Botany. 



EXERCISE 9. 



Take one of your grains of soaked corn. Draw the side 

 which has a depression. Divide with a knife into sym- 

 metrical halves. Draw the section thus shown. What part 

 is the softest ? This is the live part of the seed the embryo. 

 Carefully remove the embryo of another grain. Try to make 

 out parts. It is evidently very different from the other 

 seeds we have examined. Is the corn plant much like any 

 one of the plants the seeds of which you have examined ? 

 Is it more like wheat than like beans or sunflowers ? 



On the convex side near the smooth end of a grain of 

 wheat find the embryo. Crush the grain with your knife. 

 What is the white powder ? Is it part of the endosperm or 

 part of the embryo?* 



Draw two views of a grain of wheat twice the natural 

 length, or larger, using a lens to aid you in seeing the 

 small details. 



If possible, get an ear of green corn a little older than 

 "just right to roast or boil." The nature of the albumen is 

 obvious in such a specimen, and the embryo is easily 

 removed. 



* If you have never chewed wheat into " wheat gum," take, this evening, or 

 as soon as you can, a handful of wheat and chew it, while you swallow oiily what 

 seems to be liquid. (Better put only a few grains at a time in your mouth.) 

 Presently there will be left in your mouth an elastic substance which is made up 

 oi gluten, colored by particles of the seed coats. The starch was swallowed with 

 saliva. 



In the roller process of making flour the embryos of wheat are separated and 

 sold uuder the appropriate name germed. 



