THE SEED 11 



seed germinates, it puts out a structure which bores 

 down into the soil like a root. As we shall see later, 

 this is much more than a root, and really consists of the 

 root, cotyledon, leaf-bud, and, in fact, the whole of the 

 young plant. The upper portion remains inside the 

 seed and gradually absorbs all the food contained in the 

 seed, passing it down to the young plant, which gradually 

 is thrust quite deep down in the soil. Here it forms its 

 roots, so that when, later on, the first green leaves 

 appear above the surface, the little seedling date palm 

 has well-grown roots, and can get water for itself from the 

 deeper layers of the soil, and is thoroughly able to exist 

 even through very dry weather, when many seedlings 

 would die. In this manner the seedling date grows at 

 the expense of the hard food-supply stored up in the 

 seed as the hard, horny substance which makes up a 

 date "stone." 



The seeds of the castor-oil plant are albuminous ; 

 when germination takes place the albumen is withdrawn 

 from the seed-coat, together with the cotyledons, the 

 albumen remaining attached to the back of the cotyle- 

 dons. The plant food is then absorbed during the first 

 few days after germination. 



The seeds of all the ordinary grasses and cereals are 

 albuminous. The manner in which the store of plant 

 food is absorbed during germination can be studied in 

 the case of barley and maize. Some grains of each 

 should be planted on three or four successive days, in 

 moist sand or sawdust, so as to furnish a number of 

 specimens in different stages of germination. Thdse 

 should then be compared with grains in an ungerminated 



