Personality of plants

PERSONALITY OF PLANTS
the seedling continues to grow, these cotyledons
begin to shrink and shrivel. The plant is living
on their substance until it can begin to make
its own. In the case of the Bean, the stem lifts
the emaciated cotyledons up into the air, where
they act as leaves until the tiny green things at
the stem's tip have expanded into those impor-
tant organs.
When the first leaves have fully opened and
the spent cotyledons have dropped off as mere
empty shells, the independent life of the plant
may be said to have begun. We are now in a
position to examine its methods of living.
Examining the root, we find that by this time
it has expanded into many branches. Each tip
is a tiny mouth through which the plant drinks
the all-important water and mineral salts. Root
tips exercise great ingenuity; they feel their
way underground, touching here, recoiling
there, and searching out the elements necessary
to the plant's economy with wonderful sagacity.
The actual absorption is done by minute filaments
or hairs which take in water and its dis-
solved contents by osmotic action. They se-
crete a digestive fluid which renders certain
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