54 GENERAL BOTANY 



4. With this in our mind let us turn to the seed- 

 lings of the Broad-bean and Pea. At first sight the 

 germination appears to be utterly different. There is 

 no arched hypocotyl drawing up two broad or thick 

 cotyledons out of the seed. Instead, the earth is pushed 

 up by a leafy shoot whose first leaves are at once of 

 the ordinary kind, a little simpler perhaps, but not 

 really different from those which come after. More- 

 over they are not opposite as cotyledons are, but 

 alternate. 



If we pull a seedling up we shall find it still attached 

 to its seed, or rather to two thick white bodies which 

 completely fill the seed and which we at once recog- 

 nize as corresponding to the cotyledons of the Brown- 

 bean or Gram. They are indeed no way different from 

 them, except that they remain inside the seed, and are 

 not drawn up above the ground. 



In a very short time after the beginning of germi- 

 nation they become soft and watery and eventually 

 disappear, not because they decay, but because their 

 whole substance is absorbed by the young plant. 



And here we see the principle of providing for the 

 seedling by packing food in the cotyledons, followed 

 to perfection. The waste of material and energy in the 

 drawing out of the cotyledons by the hypocotyl as we 

 see it in the Gram and Broad-bean is done away with, 

 and the shoot can begin its life just a little earlier. 



Now examine seeds that have been soaked in water 

 a day or two, and become soft. As in the Melon, so 

 in the Brown-bean, Gram, Broad-bean and Pea, there 

 is an embryo consisting of two large cotyledons, which 

 fill practically the whole seed, and are connected with 



