40 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



We now know that the food of the embryo of a plant is as complex as that of an 

 animal; that besides starch it may comprise very many kinds of carbohydrates; that 

 nitrogen-containing matter or proteid is an absolutely essential constituent of it, occur- 

 ring in some form in all seeds; and that very many plants accumulate various fats or 

 oils for the same nutritive purpose. 



The embryo or young plant, then, finds itself provided for by its parent, shielded from 

 the adverse influences of its environment, if such there be, by being wrapped up in a 

 strong protective integument; situated in the midst of plenty of nutritious material, 

 and furnished in itself with all needful powers of calling these supplies into active use 

 as soon as changes in its environment supply to it the necessary stimulus to its develop- 

 ment and growth. The whole process of germination, indeed, is one which is strictly 

 comparable with that which goes on constantly in the animal body, viz.: digestion and 

 the absorption of the products of digestion. 



When this reserve food is gone, what then? The thing is no longer a 

 seed, but has become a seedling. It has, in case of our cultivated higher 

 plants, acquired chlorophyl in its protoplasm— has become capable of 

 elaborating and assimilating the crude materials taken from the air, the- 

 water, and the soil, and using them to build up itself. 



A chapter may be written on the impurities contained in seeds of 

 grasses and clovers, such as dirt, chaff, stones, seeds of weeds. The latter 

 are carried by man and sown by him in good soil well fitted to sustain 

 growth. 



Another chapter could be written on the best modes of preserving the 

 vitality of seeds, showing that there is no one best way for all sorts of 

 seeds. Chestnuts, acorns, walnuts, must not be thoroughly dried, while 

 this is just the thing for beans, mustard, and wheat. 



There are some queer things about the germination of the seeds of many 

 of our worst weeds. Fourteen years ago I buried seeds of some twenty 

 kinds of weed. After ten years one set was tested. They were in a bottle 

 of moist sand, twenty inches below the surface. The sand was taken in 

 spring into the laboratory and kept slightly moist, when at once many 

 seeds began to grow. Alternations of moisture were kept up till late in 

 November. During all of this time seeds sprouted more or less abund- 

 antly. I set the sand away dry and in a cold room, all winter, when the 

 next spring, warmth and moisture were applied. At once some seeds 

 sprouted, and others kept coming on slowly for some weeks. Why did 

 not all the seeds start during the first few days after they were taken to- 

 the laboratory? We can not answer. But this we see, that the difference 

 in time of germination is a great benefit to such species of weeds, for a 

 new crop may appear, if accident destroy the first. 



Seeds of wheat and buckwheat may often be sprouted five to seven or 

 more times before being exhausted. In these cases the root is the part 

 starting. The tip dries up and dies, and when again moistened pushes 

 out one or more sprouts at the side. The terminal bud in each case starts 

 more slowly and is not killed till the final drying is made. If killed, no 

 branches appear. 



Seeds of some plants are sown or scattered by quickly bursting pods. 

 Samples may be found in the wild touch-me-not, peas, witch-hazel, and 

 oxalis. 



Seeds are often buried or covered by the falling leaves in autumn. They 

 work into cracks in the soil, by means of the motions above referred to; 

 also by twisting awns as in some of the grasses. Water carries many into 

 small crevices and washes soil over them. In case of the grains of porcu- 

 pine grass, they bore or twist themselves into sand for several inches, or 



