2 THE GROWTH AND PARTS OF PLANTS 
in the seeds. But in a few days or a week, if it is 
not too cold, some of the surface earth above the 

buried seeds is disturbed, lifted, or 
cracked. Rising through this open- 
ing in the surface soil there is a 
young green plant. We see that it 
has life now, because it grows and has 
the power to push its way through 
the soil. The dry seed was alive, but 
could not grow. The plant life was 
dormant in the dry seed. What made 
the plant life active when the seed 
was buried in the soil? 
Fig. 1. Bean seedlings How the maize seedling gets out of 
breaking through the 
soil. the ground. One should watch for 
the earliest appearance of the seedlings 
coming through the soil. The maize seed- 
ling seems to come up with little difficulty. 
It comes up straight, as a slender, pointed 
object. which pierces through the soil 
easily, unless the earth is very hard, or 
a clod or stone les above the seedling. 
It looks like a tender stem, but in a few 
days more it unrolls, or unwinds, and 
long, slender leaves appear, so that what 

wr 2 
Ee 
Fic. 2. Maize seed- 
lings coming up. 
we took for a stem was not a stem at all, but delicate 
leaves wrapped round each other so tightly as to push 
