SPRItfG NATURE STUDY 587 



" Some little yellow (or green) crumpled things." "And 

 what do you think they are ? " 



Bring out, by having children look at more advanced 

 stage of morning glory that they are leaves. (These we 

 can call seed-leaves, because any child can see that they are 

 leaves. To call the cotyledons of the bean or pea seed 

 leaves only confuses the children. They cannot grasp in a 

 few weeks what it took botanists generations to compre- 

 hend, that the cotyledons of bean or pea are merely modi- 

 fied, greatly thickened leaves.) 



Make sure that the children see the pellet of white starch, 

 about which the leaves are partly rolled. If necessary, 

 show this in seeds which have been soaked two or three 

 days. Perhaps the pupils can discover, by tasting it, that 

 it is changing to sugar. Note how early in the plant's de- 

 velopment it disappears. Tell them that this (albumen) is 

 the store of food the plant mother provided for her babies 

 until they were old enough to get their own food. The 

 leaves are wrapped around this food. At first it is dry, like 

 starch. When the plant begins to grow, Mother Nature 

 turns it to sugar, which dissolves in water, and can be ab- 

 sorbed by the leaves. When this food is gone the leaves 

 have grown enough and have become strong enough to get 

 along without the protecting seed coat. 



Show how it is better for the seed to be pulled out as 

 it is, and how it is better for the leaves to grow out back- 

 ward. 



Step IV. Summary. Have oral summary or blackboard 

 reading lesson or individual written reproduction on " How 

 Our (or My) Morning Glory Seed Came Out of the Ground," 

 bringing out clearly, position and change in pos tion of stem, 

 and reasons; position and changes in albumen, and use and 

 reasons; position and growth of seed leaves, and reasons; 

 pushing off of the seed coat, and why pushed off. 



