a THE BROAD BEAN PLANT. 



your sketch is magnified (x 2, X 3, etc.). All the parts 

 shown should be labelled ; do not write the names inside the 

 drawing, but at the end of a line drawn to the part named. 

 Write below each drawing the name of the plant, the part of 

 the plant, the aspect represented, etc. 



4. Hints on Lens Work. So much can be done with a lens, 

 especially if a microscope is not available, that some hints on lens work 

 may be useful. The best kind of lens is the "aplanatic" or "platy- 

 scopic," which gives a flat field of vision without distortion of the 

 edges ; but a cheap triple folding-lens will do. It is easy to make a 

 simple stand to carry the lens, and to allow of both hands being 

 used in dissecting the specimen examined. The lens can be fixed to 

 a cork which slides up and down a vertical rod, e.g. a knitting- 

 needle or hat-pin, inserted into a wooden base. Another useful plan is 

 to get a piece of thick glass, about 9 by 4 ins. ; to one side of it paste 

 two pieces of thick paper, each 3 by 4 ins., one black, the other white 

 (or a single piece, 6 by 4 ins., with one half painted black). Keep the 

 papered side downwards, placing on the upper side the objects to be 

 examined with the lens ; move them along so as to see their appear- 

 ance against the opaque white and black surfaces, and also against 

 the light through the clear part of the plate. See Ch. III. 



5. The Farts of the Plant. If we examine a number 

 of common Seed Plants, we find that in most cases it is easy 

 to recognise two sharply distinguished parts the root, which 

 grows downwards into the soil, and the shoot, which grows 

 upwards into the air. 



Select for your first studies a few plants whose shoot is 

 erect (not burrowing in the soil, or creeping, or climbing) 

 and herbaceous (not hard and woody), and find out in what 

 respects these plants agree. 



6. Materials for Study. Pull up, or dig up, specimens of the follow- 

 ing common plants : Broad Bean, Chickweed, Groundsel, Red Dead- 

 Nettie, Poppy, Candytuft, Charlock. 



Examine each plant thoroughly, after washing off any soil that may 

 cling to the root, making notes and sketches of your observations. 

 The Broad Bean is given full}' in this chapter as a type, and the other 

 plants should be carefully compared with it at every point. 



7. The Broad Bean Plant. A good way in which to 

 begin work on plant-life is to raise plants from seed. The 

 chief reason why the Broad Bean has been chosen for 

 our first studies is that its seeds are easily germinated at 



