HOW SEEDS GERMINATE 



11 



door close to the scar. As soon as the root is clear of 

 the bean, it begins to point downwards. 



10. The seed-leaves. Meantime the plantlet is 

 growing larger. In a few days the leaves begin to take 

 a green tint, and the green colour spreads to the stem 



just below the 

 leaves, and to the 

 whole of the bean- 

 half. The root 

 continues white. 

 Already we can see 

 that our guess was 

 correct. The bean- 

 half is one of the 

 green, fleshy leaves 

 which we saw above 

 the ground, and the 

 little leaves of the 

 plantlet are the 

 true leaves. And 

 so, we shall call 

 the two bean-halves 

 that turn into green fleshy leaves — seed-leaves. We 

 eee now that the halves in split peas are just seed 

 leaves that have been pulled apart. 



11. And now the green stem gets longer and longer, 

 and takes the form of a loop above the bean-half. It 

 is clear that the loop is trying to lift the seed-leaf 

 into the air, and so you must press in the blotting- 

 paper so that the seed-leaf can get out. If you do 

 this, you will see, in a day or two, the loop lifting out 

 the bean-half which is now a green, fleshy leaf. We 

 have now been able to watch every step from the 



Bean-half growing : all the seedling above the 

 Slue roots is now becoming green. 



