i 3 2 THE SCHOOL GARDEN BOOK 



those of the tomato and the squash, but, nevertheless, they 

 serve their purpose to enable the young bean plant to get a 

 start in the world. 



If at the same time as you plant the beans you will also 

 plant some peas in another flower-pot, and when they come 

 up compare the seedlings with those of the beans, you per- 

 haps will wonder where the cotyledons are. Dig up one of 

 the young pea seedlings and also one of the young bean seed- 

 lings; wash the soil out of the roots, lay them side by side, 

 and see if you can discover where the cotyledons of the pea 

 seedlings are. 



If now you will plant a few kernels of corn in still another 

 flower-pot and watch for the development of these seedlings, 

 you will find that the first leaves which appear are very 

 similar to the later ones. In order to see what is happening 

 in this case, dig up one of the young corn plants, wash out the 

 roots, and compare it with the seedlings of the peas. 



In the case of the tomato, the squash, the bean, and the 

 pea there were two cotyledons for each seed, but in the case 

 of the corn there is but one. Consequently the four plants 

 first named are examples of a great group of plants which 

 are called the two-cotyledon plants, or the Dicotyledonous 

 plants, a word of Latin origin which means having two 

 cotyledons. The corn plant, however, is an example of 

 another great group of plants in which there is but one 

 cotyledon, and so these are called the Monocotyledonous 

 plants. See if you can find among the garden crops you 

 grow, or among the wild plants you see out-doors, other ex- 

 amples of each of these two groups. And see also if you can 

 find any difference in the formation of the leaves of the 

 plants belonging to each. 



