58 GENERAL BOTANY 



any trace of a division, for it is not formed as one 

 might possibly suppose by the coalescence of two 

 leaves, but is just a single one. 



7. The Date-seed will take much longer to germi- 

 nate and when it has done so, the first thing to 

 appear above ground is a thin upright leaf there is 

 no curved organ like that of the Onion. But look 

 again. This leaf will be found to spring from quite 

 deep down in the soil, and the short stem from which 

 it and the later leaves arise are connected with the 

 seed by a long organ whose tip is in the seed, 

 and can be seen as a wrinkled swollen head inside 

 the endosperm. The latter which at first is very 

 hard has become softer, and just round this head 

 its clear blue colour is changed to an opaque white, 

 which means it is being changed somehow by the action 

 of the head. If the long green organ that connects the 

 Onion plant to its seed is the cotyledon, that of the 

 Date must be a cotyledon too, and in the same way, 

 morphologically speaking, a leaf. The stem and radicle 

 are at first very short and are pushed into the ground 

 by the long growing cotyledon, and from the very 

 short axis, the next few leaves arise. 



Before germination has begun it is very difficult 

 to make out any parts in this embryo for the simple 

 reason that the radicle and cotyledon are in one line 

 and the shoot bud is hardly developed at all. But 

 in seeds that have been some time in the earth, the 

 hard bluish-white colour of the endosperm will have 

 changed to a dull white soft substance just near the 

 embryo, and as germination goes on this area of dull 

 white spreads through the endosperm. 



