24 



HENDERSON'S GARDEN GUIDE AND RECORD. 



SEEDLINGS 



OF VARIOUS 



Vegetable Plants 



Many of our friends, who are beginners in gardening work, have written us that they 

 are often at a loss to distinguish the seedlings of the different varieties of vegetable seeds 

 they have sown, from the seedlings of weeds which will appear in every seed-bed. In 

 order to assist them we publish on the four following pages, drawings from nature of seed- 

 lings of the principal vegetables. Most seedlings of vegetable plants look alike when they 

 first appear above ground; owing to the fact that the first leaves to appear are so similar. 

 These leaves are termed cotyledons or seed-leaves, and in most cases are produced in pairs. 

 There are some exceptions to this rule, however — notably the cotyledons of corn and 

 other cereals, also onions and other hollow-stemmed plants, which put forth only a single 

 seed leaf. These seed-leaves may be easily recognized in the drawings by their smooth 

 appearance, and lack of serrations. Between them appears the plumule, or top; and from 

 this the first true leaves are developed. Cotyledons or seed-leaves might well be called 

 feeding-leaves, as they contain stored up food for the young seedlings to draw upon until 

 they become firmly rooted in the soil. When this is accomplished the true leaves appear, 

 and the plant can be identified. 



