Plants and their children

by Frances Theodora Parsons

You have examined the silky sails of the seeds which float through the air, and the hooks and claws of those little tramps that manage to steal free rides.

And some seeds you have planted. These you have watched day by day, and you have seen that the baby plants burst their seed shells much as a chick bursts its eggshell.

Now what I want you to do is this: I want you to study carefully the different parts of these little creatures that are living out their strange, beautiful lives under your very eyes. I want you to watch them from day to day; to learn how they eat and drink and work and grow, until you feel that you know them really well.

First let us look at this bean plant which is breaking its way through the earth.

Just what do you see?

You see what looks like a thick, green hoop (Fig. [105]), do you not?

What is it, this odd-looking hoop?

Fig. 105

Perhaps some of you still think that it is the root, for I remember that I too once supposed the root was the part of the plant which first left the bean.