HOW A SQUASH PLANT GETS OUT OF THE SEED 81 



still attached to the very lowest part of the stalk, 

 below the soil, but the other plant has no seed 

 at that point. 



102. We will now plant more 

 seeds a dozen or more of them 

 so that we shall have enough for 

 examination two or three times 

 a day for several days. A day 

 or two after the seeds are planted, 

 we shall find a little point or root- 

 like portion breaking out of the sharp end 

 of the seed, as shown in Fig. 74. A day 

 later, this portion has grown to be as long 

 as the seed itself (Fig. 75), and it has 

 turned directly downward into the soil. 



103. There is another most curious thing 

 about this germinating seed. Just where the 

 root is breaking out of the seed (shown 

 at a in Fig. 75), there is a little peg 

 or projection. In Fig. 76, about a 

 day later, the root has grown still 

 longer, and this peg seems to be forc- 

 ing the seed -coats apart. In Fig. 77, 

 however, it will be seen that the 

 are really being forced apart by the stem or 

 stalk above the peg, for this stem is now grow- 

 ing longer. The lower lobe of the seed has at- 

 tached to the peg (seen at a, Fig. 77), and the 





seed -coats 



