THE SEED. 
135 
the dicotyledons. Show the two thick leases that were 
packed within the seed-coat when the seed ripened. 
Are any of your seeds monocotyledonous ? If so, 
which ? 
Figs. 228 and 229 were drawn from plants that 
had grown a little. When your seeds have also grown 
a little, compare them one after another with these 
pictures. Look at your young bean-plant. Find the 
first node above the cotyledons. How many leaves 
are growing there ? how many at the first node of the 
corn-stem ? how many in each of your growing seeds ? 
Observe whether the cotyledons in all cases rise 
into the light and air. Observe whether all cotyle¬ 
dons are shaped alike, and also whether they resem¬ 
ble the true leaves of the plant. Write carefully in 
your note-book the decision you have made in this 
exercise about each of your seeds. You will have 
occasion to refer to it as soon as your plants have put 
forth perfect full-grown leaves.^ 
* A word of caution may not here be amiss. There is danger 
that the sympathy of teachers with bright and interested pupils 
will lead them to tell in advance what children can find out for 
themselves by continued observation. The connection between 
number of cotyledons and venation is an instance of such temp¬ 
tation. This relation is an impressive one, and prominent in 
classification; but there is no need of haste in getting to it. 
By-and-by, when the leaves of his growing plants are well devel¬ 
oped, by the aid of his note-book, the pupil might be put in the 
way of discovery, by asking him to make a list of his monocoty¬ 
ledons, and to give their venation in each case. Let him do the 
same with his dicotyledons. He will now see a perfect uni¬ 
formity of relation in a few cases, and will be curious to know 
if it is everywhere constant. He will thus arrive at the induc¬ 
tion by his own observation. 
