CLASSES AND NATURAL ORDERS. 



33 



if you have a little garden probably some radish seed 

 as well. When the seed begins to grow it bursts 

 open, and two little leaves, just opposite to each other, 

 open out from it, and at last you see them above the 

 ground. If the mustard is sown rather thick, and 

 with very little fine earth over it, you can generally 

 see these two seed leaves as they begin to push out 

 from the seed. 



You can see them 

 also in the spring- 

 time under almost any 

 common sycamore or 

 maple tree. Under 

 the tree, or near it, 

 you will generally find 

 some of its seeds, 

 which have begun to 

 grow. The two seed 

 leaves, which have 

 been shut up in their 

 little seed case, gradu- 

 ally push their way Fig. 28. Sycamore or Greater Maple. 

 OUt, and as they un- (^' p^do-platanus.) * the fruit. 



roll, the baby sycamore sends out its roots into the 

 ground that it may live and grow. You should try 

 and find some of these sycamore or maple seeds in 

 different stages of growth ; from the seed just bursting, 

 until you find the empty seed case, and the young 

 plant fairly started in life, with its seed leaves 

 expanded as you can see it in the picture. Fig. 29, 

 4 



