SEEDS AND SOWING 



developed enough for microscopic dissection to reveal 

 it plainly, in others it is very rudimentary. 



Usually it has two plump divisions called cotyle- 

 dons four syllables cot-y-le-dons , with the accent on 

 the first; there are, however, plants which have more or 

 only one, but they will come later and these, if they 

 push their way up through the earth some do not 

 spread apart and look to us like leaves. Consequently 

 we usually speak of them as the first or seed leaves, 

 although they aren't leaves at all. It is between them 

 and protected by them that the actual growing point of 

 the plant waits, the plumule or true leaf-bud whence 

 the real plant is to arise, with the plant's true leaves. 



The cotyledons are only caretakers the nurse- 

 maids of the baby plant itself which feed and guard it 

 until it has grown big enough to draw its own susten- 

 ance, through its true leaves and the little roots that 

 have been keeping pace underground with the leaves' 

 growth, from the elements about. Until a true leaf is 

 formed, every plant lives on the food stored away with 

 it in the seed, no matter how miscroscopic that seed 

 may be. 



Not until the true leaves have developed, generally 

 speaking, are seedlings strong enough to bear handling 

 and transplanting. Some of your seed packets will tell 

 you to transplant when the third leaf appears, or to thin 

 out when the true leaves appear, which means of course 

 the third leaf after the cotyledons in the first instance, 

 the first pair of leaves in the second for sometimes the 

 true leaves appear in pairs, opposite on their stalk, 



19 



