Read Ebook: The 'Look About You' Nature Study Books Book 3 [of 7] by Hoare Thomas W

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Ebook has 494 lines and 21076 words, and 10 pages

"Now, if you look down the twig, you will notice another ring of such marks. These are the scale-marks of last year's bud. The part of the twig in between these two ring marks is a year's growth."

"There is a third ring on mine farther down the stem," said Frank.

"Yes, and another farther down still," said Uncle George. "These are the bud marks of former years. Let us measure the distance between them, for in this way we can tell the kind of summers we have had in past years.

"Last year's growth, you see, is two inches. The growth of the year before is three inches, and the one beneath that is four and a half inches. This tells us that there was very little sunshine during last summer or the summer before, and that three years ago there was a warm summer, causing much growth."

"I see some other strange marks on the twig," said Tom.

"Oh, you mean the horse-shoe marks. These are the scars left by the big green leaves which fell off in autumn. You will find one of these curious horse-shoe marks under each bud.

"Here is a hawthorn twig. I brought it to let you see another way in which plants protect their buds. In the hawthorn the buds usually occur in pairs together. Between each pair of buds there is a long sharp thorn.

"The reason why every pair of buds is guarded in this way is very clear. The horse-chestnut and beech have tall, stout stems, which rear up their branches far out of the reach of grazing animals. The hawthorn is a low growing tree. Its branches are within easy reach, and its tender buds would be nipped off by sheep and cattle if it were not for these sharp thorns.

"The thorns also prevent the buds from being knocked off by anything rubbing against the hawthorn hedge. You will notice that each thorn is very much longer than the buds beside it. These thorns can give a very cruel prick, as every boy knows who has tried to cut a twig from the hawthorn hedge.

"To-day," said Uncle George, "we are going to try to find out something about seeds." And he placed upon the table a saucerful of beans which had been soaking in water for two days.

"First let us look at the seeds as they are when we get them from the shop," he said, laying a handful of hard, wrinkled beans upon the table.

"They are as hard as stones, and very much smaller than those we soaked," said Frank.

"Yes, that is one thing we have learned about them already. Seeds take in water and swell greatly." As he spoke, Uncle George gave Frank, Tom, and Dolly each a small knife and a needle mounted in a handle. He then laid a small magnifying glass on the table.

"Take a soaked bean and look at it well," he said. "First we will look at the outside of it, then we will see what it has inside."

"My bean is covered all over with a smooth skin," said Dolly.

"And there is a long black mark on one side of it," Tom added.

"Come on, Frank," said his uncle, "haven't you got something to say."

"It is sort of kidney-shaped," said Frank.

"Nothing more?"

Frank shook his head.

"Squeeze it," said Uncle George, "and tell me what you see."

"Oh, there is water oozing out of a little hole at the end of the black mark," said Frank.

"That shows us that the seed is not quite covered by its skin," said their uncle. "That little hole is there to allow a tiny root to grow out.

"Now let us remove the skin, or skins rather, for there are two of them. Begin as far away from the black mark as you can. You see that the outer skin is tough like leather, while the inner one is soft and silky. Now, if you pull the skins off gently, you will find something like a stout little root pointing towards the little hole you have already noticed. If you look at the edge of the seed you will notice a thin line or crack. Putting the knife into this crack, we find that the seed consists chiefly of two large, flat, white parts or lobes, with a very small object in between them. Let us remove one of these white masses, and have a look at this small object with the glass."

Each of the children had a look through the glass in turn.

"Why," said Tom, "it is very like what we found inside the horse-chestnut bud. I can see two tiny leaves."

"Remove the little object on the point of your needle and look at it again," said Uncle George. "It has got something that your little horse-chestnut shoot did not have, I think."

"There is a little thing like a root," said Tom.

"It is a little plant with a very fat little root," said Frank.

"That is just what it is," said his uncle.

"Has every seed got a little plant inside it, Uncle George?" Dolly asked.

"Every seed, Dolly, no matter how small."

Uncle George split up one of the hard seeds that had not been soaked, and showed them a little plant of the same kind inside; but it was so hard and brittle that he could crumble it up into powder between his fingers.

"And what are the two large white lobes for?" asked Frank.

"These are the seed-leaves. They are stores of plant-food. The young plant is fed by these until its root grows far down into the soil and its shoot grows high up into the air--until it is old enough and strong enough to find food for itself, in fact.

"In the bud, the little shoot is fed by the sap of the mother-plant. Here, in the seed, we have a baby plant wrapped up in two coats, one thick and leathery and the other soft and warm; and, in place of a large feeding-bottle, there are two huge masses of plant-food wrapped up with it."

"Why do we put seeds in the ground to make them grow?" asked Frank.

"That is why seeds won't grow outside in winter, then," said Frank.

"That is the reason," his uncle answered. "In winter there is not enough heat to make seeds grow. If you sow seeds in a pot of dry soil in summer, and do not give them water, they will not grow."

"I think a seed is a most wonderful thing," said Tom.

"It is," said Uncle George, "wonderful indeed. The most wonderful thing about it is that there is life in it--sleeping life, awaiting these three things I have told you about.

"Dried up, and as hard as a stone, it will keep for years; but when air, warmth, and moisture are given it, it springs into life and becomes a plant, which grows, produces seeds, and dies.

"Now, we will plant the rest of the soaked beans--not in ground, for I want to let you see that the seed-leaves contain far more food than the tiny plant requires to feed it until it is old enough to take care of itself.

"We will plant these seeds in damp sawdust, from which they can get no food. We will see that they get water, air, and warmth, but no food except what is in the big seed-leaves."

Uncle George then got a box filled with sawdust, and placed the beans in it. He arranged them in different ways. Some beans he placed edgeways, others longways, others lying on their sides.

"I am doing this," he said, "to show you that, no matter how a seed happens to lie in the soil, its root will always grow down and its shoot will always grow up."

He then covered them up with a thin layer of sawdust, and placed the box in a warm corner of the kitchen. The boys promised to water the seeds every day, and to watch them as they grew.

Every day the boys watched their buds and seeds bursting into life.

It was slow work; but, as winter passed slowly away and they were able to go out for walks more often, they had much to amuse them. They brought home all sorts of curious things, and soon had quite a host of living things to watch.

This moving apart of the scales was caused by the shoot or branch inside the bud, which was growing rapidly.

Before the scales fell off, it had burst its way through them. It was now a large mass of thick leaves all folded together, and covered all over with a sort of wool.

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