The stamens have on them the pollen, or yellow dust, of which you have heard.[5] At the bottom of the pistil is the little seed case or bag. This case grows. It holds the seeds. The other parts of the flower fade and fall. The seed case grows and grows, and the seeds grow in it. The seed cup, or case, is of many shapes and sizes. I shall tell you more of the seed and its case some other time. Flowers differ as much or more than leaves in shape, color, size. They differ also in smell. Some smell sweet; some smell bad; some have no smell. Sometimes the flower cup is all in one piece, sometimes it is in two, three, five, or very many pieces. FOOTNOTES: [5] Nature Reader, No. 2, pp. 34, 35; No. 1, pp. 39, 45. LESSON IV. A YEAR IN A PLANT’S LIFE. Now you shall hear the story of a plant’s life. The life-story I shall tell you is of a plant that lives one year. This story begins with a seed and ends with a seed. The story of any plant would be this, only that the story of some plant-lives would run through many years. During these years they would ripen many crops of seeds. Let us take the story of a bean’s life. We choose this because a bean has a plain and simple story. All its parts are large enough to see. Any one of you can get beans to help tell the story. To enjoy this story you should get a bowl, or pot, of earth, and seven beans. Now first look closely at these beans. They have a thick shining skin. Break open one bean. It is made in two halves, which have a little seam around them longwise. On the middle of one side is a dent. Your mother will tell you that is the _bean’s eye_. This dent goes through the outer skin. Now soak your other six beans in water for a few hours. If you soak them they will sprout sooner when you plant them. Now put one bean in the middle of the pot, or bowl, of earth, and the other five around the sides. Do not bury them too deep. Let about half an inch of earth lie over them. Keep the earth moist. Set the pot in the sun and in fresh, but not too cold, air. When you took your beans to plant, did they look just as when you put them in the water? No. They were swollen with the water, and the skin was wrinkled. You could see the seam around the bean, and the eye, much plainer than when the bean was dry. In a day or two you may dig up one bean from the edge of the pot. Now you will see a small round thing, shaped a little like your lead-pencil point, coming out of the eye of the bean. Take a needle and gently split the bean open. The upper end of this tiny stem is bent over, and has a little wrinkled knob on it. In another day you may dig up a second bean. Split it; you will see quite plainly that the wrinkled knob is a pair of leaves, and the round object is a stem.