152 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[Mat, 
A 
Boys’ and Girls’ Garden-Ko. 3. 
The articles under this head havG an important end in 
view. We expect, by gradual, easy steps, to teach those 
who read them, some important and useful lessons, to 
lead them to become closer observers of the wonderful 
things in the natural world, and thus add greatly to the 
interest of their future lives. Some of you may become 
skillful botanists before you know it. We hope every 
one will follow our sugges¬ 
tion, and sow the seed as we 
recommended, and apply 
the description to the plants 
themselves. Study these ar¬ 
ticles enough to become fa¬ 
miliar with the few apparent¬ 
ly hard names we introduce. 
Please learn the A B C’s, 
and you will soon become 
interested readers. Read the 
review ending this chapter. 
—In tile last number, we 
told our young friends what 
seeds to plant, and probably 
many have them already in 
the ground. There is no need 
to be in a hurry, for any time 
in May will be early enough 
to sow them. The Sweet 
Peas and Morning Glories 
should be put where they 
can have strings or brush to 
run upon, and the Musk- 
melon should have room 
enough to spread itself on 
the ground. The seeds be¬ 
ing in the ground, we must now wait patiently for the 
plants to show themselves. After a while—which will 
be longer or shorter, according to the weather, and the 
deplh to which the seeds were covered—the ground will 
break and the little plants will push through, and all but 
the Peas and Oats will spread out two little leaves to the 
light and air. If there are plenty of 
plants of the Melon, you can afford to 
take up one or more carefully, and you 
will find it will look as in fig. 1. It 
has root, stem, and leaves, and though 
very small, it has all that a plant needs 
to enable it to grow. Wonderful in¬ 
deed have been the changes which 
have been going on in the dark ground ; 
a little dry lifeless looking seed was 
put in tile earth, and now we have a 
living plant. Before we watch the 
growth any further, let us see what 
lias been going on out of our sight, 
and where this plant came from. Take 
a piece of cloth and w et it and fold it 
a few times so that it w ill lay on a plate 
or saucer ; put a few of the Melon seeds 
between the folds of the cloth, cover 
with another plate or saucer, and keep 
it in a warm room. We have now the 
seeds in very much the same condi¬ 
tion as they are in the soil, they have 
warmth, moisture and air, and all 
these are necessary in order that the 
seed may grow. The seed soon begins to swell and in a 
day or two, the skin or seed coat will 
break open, and a little point of stem 
will be seen pushing itself out of the 
crack. This stem will go on increasing 
until it gets to be several times longer 
than the seed, (fig. 2.) The seed-coat 
will be pushed off and the two seed- 
leaves will show themselves. If the 
cloth has been kept moist, we shall get 
in this way a little plant just like the one 
which grew in the ground, except that it 
will have no roots, (fig. 3.) It will be 
noticed that this plant all came out of 
the seed, for we have given it nothing 
but water. Now, what was in that seed 
at the beginning ? We must pick it open 
and find out. Let us take a 
melon seed and soak it un-, 
til it becomes a little soft-l 
ened, and then pick its coat 
off carefully. Weshallfind 
inside of it two little leaves, 
rather thick and plump, 
joined together by a very short little stem, 
(fig. 4.) A little plant then is really packed 
away in the seed, only differing from the *• 
plant in fig. 3, in the length of the stem. This is the embryo. 
w 
Fig. 2. 
Fig. 3. 
Now as quite a growth takes place when it is not in the 
ground it is plain that all the material for this growth 
must have been provided beforehand in the seed. This 
is really the case. The two seed leaves are thick from 
being filled with food which is to enable the plant to make 
Fig. 5. 
its first growth -which is to push out the little stem. If 
the seed is in the ground this stem lengthens ; the lower 
end pushes downwards, and the other end works its way 
to the surface. The plant can make its grow th, thus far, 
from its store of food, but roots soon start 
from the lower end of the stem, by means 
of which it can draw nourishment from 
the soil. Now we have described the plant 
thus far without the help of any unusual 
words, but as there are terms which are 
used to express the parts, we may as well 
know what they arc. The little stem is 
called the radicle, and the seed-leaves are 
Fig. 6. called cotyledons. The cotyledons or 
seed-leaves are unlike in shape to those which will fol¬ 
low them, but they are nevertheless leaves. In many 
plants they fall away after other leaves appear, but in 
the melon they will grow large and remain for a long 
time. We find that the leaf in this case is made to do 
two things; while it is in the seed it serves to hold food 
for the first growth of the plant, and afterward it comes 
to the light and air, and acts like other leaves in help¬ 
ing the plant to grow'. Our little Melon plant has at 
first only a pair of leaves, but soon a little bud will ap¬ 
pear between them which contains the leaves that are to 
follow. This bud is called the plumule, (fig. 7); it is to be 
found ready formed in some seeds, and can be easily seen 
in the bean.—Let us now see how some of the other seeds 
arc getting on. The Tomatoes will be likely to be rather 
slow in coming up, but after a while their long seed-leaves 
will make their appearance. 
The Peas will seem quite 
unlike the rest in their way 
of growing, and you will 
watch in vain for the seed- 
leaves. They are there hid¬ 
den underground, and if one 
is dug up, the two cotyle¬ 
dons will be found, but so 
filled up with food for the 
young plants, that they will 
never be able to serve as 
leaves above ground, so they 
remain below and give up 
their nourishment to the 
plunjule which grows rapid¬ 
ly, (fig. 5.) The right hand 
figure is the pea, with its 
skin off, showing the radicle; 
and tile left hand figure 
shows the radicle and the 
plumule growing. The Four 
O’clock and Morning Glory 
will show two seed-leaves 
when they come up, which 
will look more like leaves 
than those of the Flax and Melon ; they are very thin 
—too thin to have held much food for the young plant; 
still the food is stored up in the seed, but not in the 
embryo itself. Place some of the Four O’clock seeds in 
a wet cloth until they begin to sprout. Then break them 
open and carefully remove the embryo plant—it will be 
found carefully rolled up and colled around a little ball 
of what appears like flour. A seed cut in two will look 
like fig. 6—where the dotted part represents the floury 
portion with the embryo coiled around it. Now this lit¬ 
tle mass of flour is put here for just the same purpose that 
the matter which thickens up the seed-leaves of the mel¬ 
on is put in them—for food to enable the little plant to 
grow until it makes roots, and can get along without this 
help.—Here the same thing is done in two different ways. 
In the melon the food is placed in the embryo, and in the 
Four O’clock it is outside of it. When the food is not in 
Fig. 7. 
the embryo, it is called albumen —and we have already 
seen that some seeds have albumen and some do not. 
The Flax, Melon and Pea, have no albumen, while the 
Four O’clock, Morning Glory, Tomato and Oat have. 
The albumen of the Morning Glory is not floury like that 
of the Four O’clock, but when wet appears like jelly. 
We have not space to show how the embryo is arranged 
in different seeds, but that can be learned by and by. 
When the oats come up they will not show seed-leaves, 
nor will you be able to find them by digging down as in 
the c^e of the pea. The seed of the oat is small, and Its 
embryo mucli smaller, and it requires a 
good magnifier and some skill to be able 
to see it. So you will have to rely upon 
our engraving to see how the embryo Oat 
(fig. 8) looks.—Fig. 8 shows the embryo at 
the lower part of the albumen, and fig. 9 
shows the embryo separate ; instead of 
two seed-leaves, there is but one, and this 
is coiled around, showing the plumule 
above, and the radicle below. This one 
seed-leaf never comes to the surface. All 
the other plants we have mentioned have 
two seed-leaves while the oat has but one. 
This difference does not appear very im¬ 
portant to you, perhaps, but it is a dis¬ 
tinguishing character of two very distinct 
classes of plants—differences which are 
seen in the embryo, and as the plant grows are found in 
all its other parts. Now, as the distinction between those 
which have two seed-leaves is an important one, perhaps 
you will go to the trouble of learningthe names by which 
they are called in the books. Those with one seed-leaf, 
or cotyledon are called mono-cotyledonous plants. Mono 
meaning one. Those with two cotyledons 
are di-cotyledonous. Di means two. You 
must not be discouraged at these names, for 
we shall not have occasion to use many such 
hard ones.—The plants being fairly up, the 
plumule or little bud soon appears ; it is soon 
lifted above the seed-leaves, a leaf or two 
leaves open—another bud appears above these 
and so the plant goes on to increase in length. 
Down in the soil the roots are increasing in 
size and number to keep pace with the growth 
above ground.—But we have given you quile 
Fig. 9. enough to observe in the little garden for the 
present. When you have seen how the 
seeds start there, it will be interesting to watch other 
seeds which the older people have planted, and see that 
they, though differing in appearance from yours, are all 
grow ing upon the same general plan. 
Review. —I. Don’t neglect to start some of the seeds. 
The above pictures are exact copies of growing seeds, 
started in a folded towel, and kept moist and warm be¬ 
tween two plates, a few' days in the Agriculturist office. 
2. —What is the embryo ? 
3. — What is the radicle? 
4. —What are cotyledons? 
5. —What is a plumule? 
6. —Where do cotyledons of peas grow? 
7. —What is the albumen? 
8. —Which of our seven chosen plants feed on albumen ? 
9. —How do the others feed ? 
10. —How does the albumen of the Morning Glory differ 
from tiiat of the Four O’clock ? 
11. —Have oats any seed leaves or cotyledons ? 
12. —What are mono-cotylcdonous plants ? 
13. —What are di-cotyledonous plants ? 
A Farmer Without Arms. 
W. M. Beauchamp, Onondaga Co., N. Y., sends to the 
American Agriculturist an interesting account of a farm¬ 
er he formerly knew, who was born without arms. “ In¬ 
stead of appealing to the charitable for support, he com¬ 
menced early to help himself. His first property was a 
hen and chickens, next a pet lamb, and afterward a shaggy 
colt. He took good care of these, and increased his stock, 
a little at a time, until he became a prosperous farmer. 
Having no hands lie learned to use his toes, which were 
longer than common. His legs were also very flexible, 
and by practice he was enabled to readily perforin most 
operations with ease. He put on and took off his own 
clothing, shaved, and fed himself, milked his ow n cows, 
and took part in most labors of the farm. lie w as a ter¬ 
ror to evil doers, whom he could punish with severity. 
He was powerfully built, and possessed of great strength 
in the head and shoulders. He would butt like a ram ; or 
seize an offending urchin with his teeth, and shake him 
with bull-dog tenacity. He died at the age of seventy, 
leaving a large family—having been man ied three times.” 
A Beautiful Reply.—A lady in Switzerland, adress- 
ing a peasant who was working in his garden very early 
in the season, said, “ I fear the plants which have come 
forward so rapidlv, will vet all be destroyed by frosts.” 
“ God lias been our Father a great while,” was the repiy. 
Fig. 8. 
