34 NATURE TEACHING. 



PRACTICAL WORK. 



Dig up several germinating seeds, and 

 young seedlings, and examine their roots. 

 Observe that plants with two seed-leaves put 

 out a main, or primary root which soon forms 

 numerous branches ; on the other hand, plants 

 with only one seed-leaf show no main root, 

 but a number of fine roots more or less 

 equal in size. A comparison of the root 

 systems of young beans and maize will make 

 this difference clear. 



ROOT HAIRS. 



1. Take a small wooden box, place at 

 the bottom two or three layers of wet blotting 

 paper, and then some maize seeds which 

 have been soaked in water for about twelve 

 hours. Cover the box with a sheet of glass 

 and put it on one side for four or five days ; 

 examine it from time to time and add more 

 water if the blotting paper should become 

 at all dry. At the end of this time root-hairs 

 should be present in abundance, and there 

 should be no difficulty in making out the 

 characters which have been previously des- 

 cribed. 



2. Pull up, very carefully, seedlings which 



