THE BLOSSOMING PLANTS 21 



show a little green at the ends of their brown 

 branches; the earth dries up so that it is no longer 

 wet and sticky; a soft gentle rain falls, and up come 

 the Httle plants and flowers, one by one. 



It is the warmth that the sun gives to them that 

 makes the seeds stir and wake and then grow. They 

 cannot move about as you do when you wake up and 

 get out of bed, they have to grow up from their beds. 

 Instead of feet, they have roots which begin to grow 

 out of the seed, and go down deeper and deeper into 

 the ground. Now these roots anchor the tiny plant 

 so it will stay right there, and they also feed it by 

 drawing up out of the earth, where the seed had been 

 sleeping so long, just what it needs to make it grow. 



After the root has commenced to grow downward 

 the stem appears and begins to grow in an opposite 

 direction. The stem is curved over and bent down 

 as if the httle plant were hanging its head, and at the 

 end are two tiny leaves. These leaves want to reach 

 the sunlight, but they are too dehcate to push their 

 way through the earth, so the stem pushes its way 

 out of the ground and pulls the leaves out after it. 

 Then it straightens up and the httle leaves open and 

 spread out, whole and perfect, because the stem 

 dragged them out of the ground instead of pushing 

 them out. 



Did you ever help mother or father plant their 

 gardens? Did you watch to see how the seeds would 

 come up? What was the first thing you saw appear 

 above the ground? 



Leaves? No. If you looked closely it was a httle 

 looped stem, as if the end of a green button-hook 



