158 FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



take one of the grains : you will find it softened all 

 through. You can crush it between your fingers 

 and squeeze out a white fluid, very sweet to 

 the taste and much resembling some sort of milk. 

 What has taken place ought not to be beyond your 

 power to surmise from the account I gave you of the 

 wonderful change starch may undergo. The per- 

 isperm of the wheat-grain consists chiefly of starch. 

 During germination this accumulation of starch is 

 converted into a sugary substance, into glucose in 

 fact. Thence comes the sort of plant-milk with 

 which the seed is now swollen. The germ is im- 

 mersed in this sweet liquid ; it imbibes it, soaks it up 

 almost as a fine sponge would ; and with the matter 

 thus absorbed it augments its own substance, which 

 lengthens into root, stem, and leaves. With what 

 furnishes us bread the grain of wheat suckles the 

 starting wheat-stalk. ' ' 



