10 LETTER I. 



bottom, cutting through both edges of the grain, as at 

 jig. 8, you will then be able to discover near the base 

 of the seed a very minute oval body {fig. 8. a.), which 

 may be taken out of the flesh with the point of a 

 needle. This oval body is a young plant ; it is the 

 part which grows when the seed germinates, and is 

 named the embryo ; the fleshy matter that surrounds 

 it, called albumen, is only intended to nourish the 

 young and delicate embryo, when it first swells and 

 breaks through the shell. Small as is the embryo, 

 so small as to be invisible to the naked eye, it also is 

 constructed in a regular manner. It is not merely an 

 oval fleshy body, but it has two differently organized 

 extremities, of which the one is divided into two lobes, 

 called cotyledoxs {fig. 10.), or seed-leaves, and the 

 other is undivided, and called radicle ; the latter is 

 the beginning of a root, as the former were the begin- 

 nings of leaves. Let the seed fall upon the earth, the 

 embryo imbibes moisture, swells and shoots forth into 

 a young plant, and thus the growth of the Ranunculus 

 is renewed as soon as it is completed. 



Such is the structure of a perfect flower, and such 

 the principal terms which you have to remember, in 

 order to understand the language of Botanists ; other 

 terms there are, besides these, which are equally 

 essential, but they are not used so frequently, and it 

 is not worth detaining you about them now. I shall 

 explain them whenever we meet with them. 



Havinof thus minutely examined the flower of the 

 Crowfoot, let us next observe the way in which its 

 other parts are formed. 



