CHAPTER I 

 THE SEED AND ITS GERMINATION 



1. Germination of the Squash Seed. — Soak some squash seeds in 

 tepid water for twelve hours or more. Plant these about an inch 

 deep in damp sand or pine sawdust or peat-moss in a wooden box 

 which has had enough holes bored through the bottom so that it 

 will not hold water. Put the box in a warm place (not at any time 

 over 70° or 80° Pahrenheit),^ and cover it loosely with a board or a 

 pane of glass. Keep the sand or sawdust moist, but not wet, and the 

 seeds will germinate. As soon as any of the seeds, on being dug 

 up, are found to have burst open, sketch one in this condition,^ not- 

 ing the manner in which the outer seed-coat is split, and continue 

 to examine the seedlings at intervals of two days, until at least eight 

 stages in the growth of the plantlet have been noted.^ 



Observe particularly how the sand is pushed aside by the rise of 

 the young seedlings. Suggest some reason for the manner in which 

 the sand is penetrated by the rising stem. 



2. Examination of the Squash Seed. — Make a sketch of the dry 

 seed, natural size. Note the little scar at the pointed end of the 



1 Here and elsewhere throughout the hook temperatures are expressed in 

 Fahrenheit degrees, since with us, unfortunately, the Centigrade scale is not 

 the familiar one outside of physical and chemical laboratories. 



2 The student need not feel that he is expected to make finished drawings 

 to record what he sees, hut some kind of careful sketch, if only the merest 

 outline, is indispensable. Practice and study of the illustrations hereafter 

 given will soon impart some facility even to those who have had little or no 

 instruction in drawing. Consult here Figs. 2, 6, and 9. 



8 The class is not to wait for the completion of this work (which may, if 

 desirable, be done by each pupil at home), but is to proceed at once with the 

 examination of the squash seed, as directed in the following sections, and to 

 set some corn to sprouting, so that it may he studied at the same time with 

 the germinating squashes. 



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