planted them in a deep box, for what long straight I'duls they have, 

 ever so mnch longer than the stems. Some that have just started to 

 grow show that the root conies out of the seed first, and grows straight 

 down into the soil, with only very few small side roots. (See Fig. 3.) 

 The root always breaks out at the same end of the seed and the 

 shell usually splits so as to make three points. Why three points, 

 rather than any other number? It has been found out that when 

 the acorn is ^ ery young, still in the flower (it may be you never saw 

 oak flowers — look for them in the spring), there are three parts to it, 

 and two plantlets. cmhri/os, to each part, all too small to be seen except 

 with a strong microscope. One embryo usually gets ahead of the 

 others, and grows so fast that it fills up the whole acorn, and the 

 other five perish for want of room. Sometimes two embryos grow; 

 and by hunting long enough one might find an acorn with two ker- 

 nels, that is. with two grown embryos. Even three might be found, 

 and possibly more, even as many as six in one acorn; but that would 

 be far more difficult than finding four-leaved clovers. If you come 

 across two or three young oaks coming up together in the woods, dig 

 down and see if tliey come from one acorn. 



Now, pull off the three valves of the acorn shell and the kernel 

 separates into two parts. It is not hard to see that these 

 are really two very thick leaves on short, fiat stalks, and 

 that the stem grows from between them. The seed 

 leaves are called cotyledons, and they are of all sizes 

 and shapes in different sorts of seeds. When thick- 

 ened they hold food for the young plant, until it can 

 get well established with roots in the soil, and leaves 

 spread out to the light. So what is food for squir- 

 rels and worms, and small boys and girls, is food for 

 young oaks. Thus plants and animals evidently like the 

 same kind of food, and thrive on it. 



If some of the acorns are uncovered as soon as 

 they start to grow, and the shell pulled off, the coty- 

 ledons will spread apart after a time and turn green. 

 But they never look very much like ordinary leaves, 

 for their greatest use is to hold the food for the little 

 plant, stored up by the parent oak, and not to make 

 new food. 

 ^'?;.^- w'^Hf I have noticed that the exposed cotyledons have not 



seedling beiore 11 ^ ., . _ 



through'tii" only turned green, but they are quite red m places. 



ground. j^^g^ j ggg ^ji^t the young stems are decidedly red, 



too now that one's attention is directed to the matter. Eed is some- 



