bean the more easily it can be observed.

A child of three or four will be interested in watching a seed grow. The
first season he may get only one idea, the seed grows into a plant. The
next season the experiment may be repeated with as much of the story of
the plant added as the little one can understand. Thus Spring after
Spring the child plants his seeds and watches them grow, constantly
adding to his store of knowledge about them, until the story of the
plant and its seed is as familiar to him as any fairy-tale, and has gone
into his consciousness to stay there forever. Let us examine the bean,
then, and see what can be learned from it, the information thus obtained
to be shared with the child as fast as his age and his power of
understanding permit.

[Illustration: THE BEAN, SPROUTING, TO SHOW THE TWO SEED-LEAVES AND THE
EMBRYO]

First let us examine the dry bean. It is hard, so hard that we can
scarcely bite it. Put it to soak in tepid water, leaving it over night.
Next day look at the changes that have taken place in it. The first
thing we notice is that it has swollen until it is twice as large as it
was, being now soaked full of water. It is also softer than it was. Its
outer skin during the process of soaking has loosened, being no longer
firmly attached to the body of the bean. This skin, being unable to
stretch, soon splits open by the swelling of the bean inside. We can
easily slip it entirely off.

[Illustration: THE BEAN--EMBRYO-LEAVES, SEED-LEAVES, AND ROOT]

Having done this let us take a good look at the bean that is now out of
its skin. We see that it is composed of two thick parts which are
joined together at only one end. These two thick parts which make the
bulk of the bean are called seed-leaves (cotyledons).

Just at the point where they seem to be joined together there is a tiny
flat white object. Looking closely at this we discover it to be a plant
consisting of two minute leaves and a little blunt tip. As a matter of
fact, the two seed-leaves are not attached directly to each other, but
each is attached to this tiny plant, or embryo, as it is called. The
word "embryo" is a valuable one to use later, and its precise meaning
can easily be fixed by always calling the young plant tucked away in the
seed the embryo. The difficulty of learning new words does not lie in
their length, but in not knowing what they mean. A child who has been to
the circus has no trouble in remembering the word "