1 5 2 FLOWER-LAND. 



or filbert, a pear, an orange, and a ^nutmeg ; and we 

 will grind the nutmeg partly away upon a grater. 

 Then we will talk about them in the evening, or 

 when it is a wet day, and you cannot go out. 



Now as we place our little store before us, we will 

 cut open the apple (Fig. 25, p. 28), and the orange, 

 and the pear, and get out their seeds or pips as we 

 call them. And what about the seeds of the walnut, 

 prune, and date ? Yes ! the hard stony thing inside 

 the date fruit is its seed : but in the prune or dried 

 plum you have to crack the stone (the endocarp) 

 and then you can get out the seed, that is the kernel. 

 So also with the shell or pericarp of the nut and 

 the endocarp of the walnut (p. 148). And we will get 

 a little water and put a pea and bean in it that they 

 may soak a little. 



Now let us take this walnut seed or kernel, and 

 peel off the thin skin which covers it. This skin, or 

 coat of the seed is called the testa* (Fig. 135 s\ and 

 varies much in different seeds. You can see by 

 looking at the seeds before us how different it is in 

 colour. In the apple it is a rich dark brown, a 

 lighter shade of brown in the prune, in the orange 

 seed it is white, in the pear black, in the common 

 mustard it is yellow. When you have an opportunity 

 of looking at some of our common wild flower 

 seeds under the microscope, you will find some of 



* From the Latin " testa" a jar, a cask (the shell or covering 

 of the seed). 



