ELEMENTARY SCIENCE BULLETIN NO, 3
March 22, 1898
MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE
EXPERIMENT STATION
CLINTON D. SMITH, DIRECTOR
BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT
A Study of the Seeds of Timothy and Red Clover Before and After Sprouting
BY W. J. BEAL
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, MICHIGAN
1898


This is the fourth of a series of bulletins on elementary science, which will be published at the Agricultural College. While they are prepared especially with the view of helping teachers in the common schools, they should interest every enterprising farmer and horticulturist, or any other wide-awake citizen. Enquiries for bulletins or information regarding this work should be addressed to
THE SECRETARY,
Agricultural College, Mich.
Bulletin Number 1 was published on Dec. 25, 1897, and is entitled Observing and Comparing Beans and Peas Before and After Sprouting.
Bulletin Number 2 was published on Feb. 28, 1898, and is entitled Study of Wheat and Buckwheat Before and After Sprouting.
Bulletin Number 3 was published on March 22, 1898, and is entitled A Study of the Seeds of Timothy and Red Clover Before and After Sprouting.


A STUDY OF THE SEEDS OF TIMOTHY AND RED CLOVER BEFORE AND AFTER SPROUTING.
While it is not absolutely necessary that pupils should be familiar with the work planned in bulletins one and two of this series, before undertaking the observations suggested in the present bulletin, it will be much better if they have had the former work. They will need one or more boxes of good earth and one or more of sand, a small quantity of seeds of timothy and clover. As mentioned in other bulletins, so here, there are two kinds of seeds to compare in study and in germination. The pupils will compare several seeds of each kind with each other while dry, and when soaked, and in both cases seeds of timothy with those of clover. Some seeds should be left on top of wet soil or sand and covered by a bowl or saucer, others should be covered with soil perhaps an eighth to a quarter of an inch deep and not be allowed to dry.

One or more trusty pupils may lay a piece of muslin on a dish of wet sand on which may be placed a few seeds of clover and timothy. On the first appearance of germination the seeds should be removed, well dried (not heated), and then exposed to moisture until again sprouting begins (if it does begin) and again dried as before, repeating the operation till all seeds fail to start to grow.

The children will doubtless soon discover that timothy is in many respects much like wheat and that a clover seed is much like a common bean. When kept for a time on wet cloth, the seeds of clover produce stains of some interest.

Here permit me to urge the teacher to encourage pupils to proceed and make all the discoveries they can, singly and by consultation, before giving them the following information which may well be called a key of answers to the subject. To teach the mere facts enumerated below is not the object of this bulletin, but to stimulate girls and boys to observe and arrive at correct conclusions.

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Some of the dry timothy seeds will appear clean and naked, while others will be partially enclosed by two small scales or chaff. In proportion to its length, a grain of timothy is rather thicker than a kernel of wheat, and has no grove along one side. There is a small spot near one end, as there was found in the kernel of wheat, where the sprout was seen to come forth.

Fig. 23. Grains of timothy magnified fifteen times.


Fig. 24. Seeds of red clover dry, magnified six times.

The seeds of clover vary in color from light yellow to dark purple, the yellow being produced by light colored plants and the dark purple seeds by dark green plants. 

Unless well screened, the seeds vary much in size and considerably in shape. Like those of white beans, they are somewhat flattened and have a small scar on one edge. The first little stem of the seedling inside is rather large and causes the seed to swell considerably along a portion of one edge.

Fig. 25. Seeds of red soaked, magnified six times.

As in wheat, so the small grain of timothy remains on the surface of the ground or beneath it while sending clover so-k-d, magni- up a slender blade to the light. Wheat left on the surface of the wet soil is sometimes stilted up, spider-like, on three and finally on five slender roots; not so with timothy. The latter produces but one main root pointing away from the base of the grain and it sticks to the soil held by the long root hairs. After a little, other roots appear near the little stem or as branches of the first main root. The first representation of a leaf consists of a light colored sheath much like that seen in wheat, and from this comes forth another and above and within still others in succession, which are narrow and slightly twisted, and the twist is in the direction taken by a screw driver while turning a screw into wood, the same as found in the leaves of wheat. If kept moist under a tumbler the tip of each leaf usually holds on the surface a small drop of water. It may interest some of the children to touch these drops with the point of a needle and watch the result.

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Fig. 26. Seedling of timothy showing grain, the first leaf as a sheath, the single root bearing few root hairs above the tip, and these hairs have caught onto grains of
sand.
Fig. 27. Seedling of timothy, farther advanced, showing a second small root and a twisted leaf blade above the first sheath.
Fig. 28. Seed of red clover germinating; the tip of the sprout is a root, the portion next the seed is a stem.
Fig. 29. Seed of red clover in a more advanced stage of germination, showing root hairs and a few grains of sand.

The moist seed of clover sends forth a single rather stout white stem with root at the apex, much after the manner of the bean, and a short distance from the seed-leaves on this root portion, after a little, appear great numbers of root hairs, and these are shorter and shorter, and are finally entirely absent as we approach the tip of the root.

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When compared with clover, the root hairs of timothy are not so numerous and are longer and begin to appear close to the kernel. In other words, the portion first pushing out and away from the kernel of timothy is all of it a root, while in clover this first portion consists of a stem with a root at the lower end.

As in case of sprouting beans, the seed-coat is sometimes carried up on the seed-leaves, but it is usually left in the soil as the plantlet appears above the surface. Seedlings of clover come out of the soil in the form of a bow as did those of the bean. When first seen each seed-leaf of clover has scarcely any stem, but later the stem becomes considerably longer

Fig. 30. Seedling of red clover as it appears above the sand.
Fig. 31. Seedling of red clover with enlarged seed-leaves.

than would be sufficient to reach across a seed leaf. The tiny, tender, green bud is protected and covered by the stems of the seed-leaves as they are closely pressed together. The seed-leaves of the bean were seen to become smaller and withered as the young plant advanced, but those of the red clover enlarge considerably, becoming four times as long as a dry seed, usually enabling them to crowd off the seed-coat, if it happens to be carried above the soil. The seed-leaves of clover become light green and 

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look fresh and plump. In time, if the plantlet thrive, the stems of the seed-leaves separate a little and a small, hairy leaf appears, consisting of a single folded blade, borne on a short stem. This is not accidental for all of the plants have this habit. If kept long enough in a thriving condition, the next leaf will consist of three leaflets to each leaf-stalk.

When timothy and clover are sown together in a box of earth in a school room, the clover germinates first, but after the plants are up an inch or two, the timothy will be the taller. As the plants are set before a window they will slant uniformly toward the light in a most interesting manner.

Both kinds of seeds will grow very well in cool weather.

Fig. 32. Seedling of red clover displaying its first rough leaf. 

As before mentioned, a grain of timothy remains on the ground or beneath the surface wherever placed, if not disturbed, and a bud is formed near the grain. These buds are hardy and likely to be protected in a way to survive inclement weather to some extent,  such as frost or drouth. A young clover plant, on the contrary, thrusts up above the soil a tiny stem carrying at the top its seed-leaves and the enclosed bud. All that is left on the soil or beneath the surface will be the small roots and these are not likely to survive very dry weather or severe cold. As the roots of clover become longer and well established they contract, drawing the cluster of short branches down close to the ground or a little below the surface. These facts possibly help us to understand why clover sown in autumn is not likely to winter well where the soil is uncovered by snow.

Pupils found it impossible to induce a clover seed to sprout a second time after the sprouting seed had been thoroughly dried. After sowing seeds in the open field in March, if the weather is warm enough to induce germination, and this is followed by freezing while seeds are on the surface of the soil, they will be killed, thus accounting in some cases for the failure of a clover crop the succeeding year.
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, MICHIGAN,
March 22, 1898.
W. J. BEAL,
Professor of Botany and Forestry.