The wonderful story of life : a mother's talks with her daughter regarding life and its reproduction / reprinted by the British Social Hygiene Council ... by permission of the United States Public Health Service.
- United States Public Health Service
- Date:
- [1933]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The wonderful story of life : a mother's talks with her daughter regarding life and its reproduction / reprinted by the British Social Hygiene Council ... by permission of the United States Public Health Service. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![You know that it has a stem which holds up the leaves and flowers, but that without the sap from the roots the stem will die. You know that it has flowers, lovely and sweet, beloved by bees and girls, and that after the flowers have faded and their petals fall, the little stumps which are left change into pods filled with seeds. These seeds, if planted and given water, air, and sunshine, will sprout into young sweet-pea vines. So every year when all the old sweet-pea vines have died we can still count upon new sweet- pea vines starting from the pea-vine seeds. These new pea vines will bear sweet peas, just as pretty and sweet as the old pea vines did. Did you ever think what a wonderful thing a seed is—that a little pea seed has in it something which will sprout and grow and become another plant, and something also which will surely make that plant take a certain form? Its stem will have tendrils; its leaves will be pea leaves and not oak leaves or tea leaves. It will bear flowers which will surely be sweet peas and not hollyhocks ; surely white or pink and not blue or yellow ; and which will have a certain odour and no other; and which will be followed by pea pods, not by peach or sunflower seeds. All of that and much more is wrapped up in the tiny seeds. The seeds are so very wonderful, Helen Eliza- beth, that I am going to tell you more about them. Every part of a pea vine or any other plant has a particular work to do. I told you a little while ago why roots were necessary, why leaves, and why the stalk. They all have a very definite work. But how about the flower? Is it only a pretty decoration for you to put in a vase on the dining- [x0]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32172060_0012.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
