CHAPTER XXVin 



THE SEED'S FOOD-STJPPLY 



' T ^7HEN it has leaves and roots that are suffi- 

 V V ciently developed, the little almond-tree will 

 nourish itself by drawing what it needs from the 

 earth and air. But until then it must live, it must 

 grow stronger, and it must increase a little in size. 

 As nothing can come from nothing, the germinating 

 seed must find somewhere the material for its first 

 growth. This cannot be in the soil so long as the 

 radicle is nothing but a point, incapable of any work ; 

 neither can it be in the air so long as the little leaf- 

 bud has not unfolded and developed into foliage. 

 The seed, then, must have a certain supply of nu- 

 triment stored up within itself. Let us turn onr 

 attention to this prepared stock of food. 



"In the almond we have studied the gemmule or 

 leaf -bud, the radicle, and the tigella ; but there still 

 remain two large pieces, easily separable from each 

 other, and constituting by themselves alone almost 

 the entire bulk of the seed. These two pieces are 

 the plant's first pair of leaves, but leaves of a pe- 

 culiar structure, being very thick, fleshy, and rela- 

 tively enormous in size. They are the alimentary 

 reservoirs, the storehouses of food from which in 

 its beginning the young plant must draw its susten- 



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