THE FLOWERING PLANT. 



43 



grow in water, if you give them the salts or mineral 

 matters they find in the earth. The ground is the best 

 soil for plants, because it already contains the food they 

 need ; besides, it forms a firm foundation for the roots. 

 First, the bean begins to swell out and get larger, from 

 the water which it takes in, and if you watch the mi- 

 cropyle, or little gate, carefully, you will see the pointed 

 end of the radicle, or little root, pushing downward 

 through this little gate. It is very curious that the root 

 never points upward ; if you plant a seed with the gate 

 upward, the root will always turn down as soon as it 

 gets out. The end is made pointed, no doubt, so as to 

 force or bore its way through the hard ground. When 

 people plant seeds, they make the ground soft like 

 powder, so that the little tender roots shall not have 

 such a hard time of it at first. The bean keeps on 

 drinking and drinking more than one and one-half 

 time its weight of water, till finally its great-coat gets 

 so tight that it bursts and falls off, then the two cotyle- 

 dons, or cups, spread apart (Fig. 33), and the plumule, 

 or little feather, appears, lifting its head above the 

 ground or water, and puts out two tiny leaves. If you 

 measure the germ now from the end of the leaf to the 

 end of the radicle, or little root, you will find it much 

 longer and thicker than it was at first ; it has grown 

 very fast, and you know nothing can grow without 



