THE SEED AND GERMINATION 43 
PHENOMENA OF GERMINATION. 
Water.—The bean and other seeds, as well as the 
maize and barley grains, first absorb a great deal of 
water, swell, and become softer. This water is neces- 
sary to dissolve the food substances stored in the 
cotyledons and endosperm, for plants, like animals, can 
utilise food only when in solution. The seeds, when 
thus swelling, exert enormous pressure. Fill a narrow- 
necked bottle with peas, these being easier to get in 
than broad beans, and place the bottle, uncorked, in a 
vessel of water. The seeds on swelling fracture the 
glass of the bottle. Germinating seeds have been 
known to lift paving stones and break holes in asphalt 
paths. 
That water enters chiefly through the micropyle 
may be proved as follows. Make two heaps of say » 
twenty seeds. In each of the seeds of one heap block 
up the micropyle with bicycle cement. Now weigh 
and place each heap in a separate vessel of water. 
Remove from the water, wipe dry and weigh the seeds 
at intervals. It will be found that the seeds with free 
micropyles, owing to their faster absorption of water, 
vain weight far more rapidly than the others. 
Growth.—The radicle now lengthens and makes its 
way through the micropyle, while the seed coat splits, 
and in some cases the cotyledons at once cast off the 
skin and separate to display the plumule between them. 
The different ways in which the shoot escapes from the 
eover will be dealt with later on. 
Fermentation.—The cotyledon of a dry bean and 
the endosperm of maize have already been found to 
contain a copious supply of starch. Now, by means of 
Fehling’s Solution, test them for sugar. Sugar, in 
appreciable quantity at any rate, is not present. Now 
take seeds, which, deep in the damp sawdust, have 
sprouted but not yet become green. On testing these, 
