CHAPTER XXXII 



THE STORY OF SEEDS 



This is a story quite worth telling, and a story you can 

 easily understand if you will try to put yourself in the place 

 of the plant. Try to see what its problems are and how 

 it solves them. The seed is the plant's 

 answer to one of its greatest problems. 



Plants that die each year as winter 

 approaches are called annuals; plants 

 that live on from year to year are called 

 perennials. You can see that for the 

 annuals there is the problem of how 

 their young children can live over win- 

 ter. The seed answers that problem. 

 But perennials also have seeds. Let us 

 see why. 



Our food comes chiefly from seeds. 

 The great crops of the world are crops 

 of seeds. The food of farm animals is largely composed of 

 seeds. What seeds do you know that are used in our foods ? 

 Any structure that contains seeds is a fruit, so the story of 

 seeds includes the story of fruits. Write a list of the different 

 kinds of fruits you have eaten. Is a tomato a fruit ? Is a 

 potato a fruit? 



We must go back to the time when plants first began to 



live on the land. The very first plants lived in the water. 



They did not have roots, stems, and leaves. They were 



just tiny, round green balls, so small that you could not 



247 



FIG. 89. The "first" 

 plants. After J. M. 

 COULTER. 



