14 HOW PLANTS GROW FROM THE SEED. 



bom animal does upon the mother's milk, or as the chick developing in the egg 

 does upon the prepared nourishment the parent had laid up for the purpose in the 



yolk. 



33. Tear open a fresh Morning-Glory seed, or cut a dried one in two, as in 

 Fig. 17, and this supply will be seen, in the form of a rich and sweetish jelly-like 

 matter, packed away with the embryo, and filling all the spaces between its folds. 

 This is called the Albumen of the seed (that being the Latin name of the white of 

 an egg) ; and this is what the embryo feeds upon, and what enables its little 

 stemlet (Fig. 19, r) to grow, and form its root downwards, and carry up and ex- 

 pand its seed-leaves {c, c) in the air, and so become at once a plantlet (Fig. 21), 

 with root, stem, and leaves, able to take care of itself, just as a chicken does when 

 it escapes from the shell. 



34. This moist nourishing jelly would not keep long in that state. So, when 

 the seed ripens and dries, it hardens into a substance like thin dried glue or gum, 

 which will keep for any length of time. And whenever the seed is sown, and 

 absorbs moisture, this matter softens into a jelly again, or gradually liquefies, and 

 the seed-leaves crumpled up among it drink it in at every pore. A portion is con- 

 sumed in their growth, while the rest is carried into the growing stemlet, thence into 

 the root forming at one end of it, and into the bud (or plumule, Fig. 22) which 

 soon appears at the other end of it, — supplying the materials for their growth. 



35. Notice the same thing in Wheat, Oats, or Indian Corn. The last is the best 

 example, because the grain is so large that all the parts may be clearly seen with- 

 out magnifying. The abundant milk or soft and rich pulp of green corn is the 

 same as the jelly in the seed of the Morning-Glory ; namely, it is the albumen of 

 the seed, provided for the embryo (the chit or germ) to feed upon when growth 

 begins. See Figures 44, 45, &c. This nourisliing food (as we well know it to be) 

 was produced by the mother-plant during the summer, was accumulated in the 

 stalk at flowering-time, in the form of sugar, or syrup, was conveyed into the 

 flowers and forming seeds ; a part was used to form the germ or embryo, and the 

 rest was stored up with it in the seed, to serve for its growth into a plantlet the 

 next spring. That it may keep through the winter, or longer, the sweet milk is 

 changed into a starchy pulp, which hardens as the grain ripens into the firm and 

 dry mealy part (or albumen), which here makes the principal bulk of the seed. 

 But when sown, this meal softens and is slowly changed back into sugar a^ain. 

 And this, dissolved in the water the seed takes in, makes a sweet sap, which the 



