Seeds and Seed Sowing 
25 
CHAPTER III 
Seeds and Seed Sowing 
If we try to understand the seeds themselves it will be 
a great help to us in our treatment of them at sowing time. 
Let us, therefore, take a seed and examine it. For our 
purpose the bean is one of the best, as, from its size, we are 
able, with the unaided eye, to see all its parts clearly. All 
dicotyledonous seeds agree with the bean in general prin- 
ciples. 
The first point to notice is the black scar (hilum) 
showing where the bean was 
attached to its stalk, which in 
turn was attached to the seed 
vessel, and the parent plant. 
If we examine this scar very 
closely we shall notice at one 
end a very tiny hole (micro- 
pyle) through which the pollen 
tube passed before fertilization 
took place. By examining the skin or outer coat (testa), 
we find it to be thick and leathery, and from this we 
conclude that it acts as a protection for the more tender 
tissues which are underneath. 
When the skin is taken off, the bean splits naturally into 
two parts. These are the seed leaves (cotyledons), and are 
filled with food material to supply the baby plant with 
nourishment until it has formed roots and green leaves, and 
can take up and manufacture its own food. Some seeds, 
Windsor Bean with the Cotyledons 
c c opened, showing the Radicle r and 
Plumule p 
