Chapter Two 

 SEEDS AND SEEDLINGS 



A seed is a potential plant living in the seed coat with 

 stored food and awaiting favorable conditions of moisture 

 and temperature for further growth. Seeds have many re- 

 markable characteristics which have enabled them to repro- 

 duce their kind through many past ages after withstanding 

 conditions unfavorable to the mature plant. These charac- 

 teristics, in many cases, have been and are important to the 

 survival of the species. Many, but not all, cultivated seeds 

 retain these characteristics, and this fact must be considered 

 in their culture. Those that have lost some of these old 

 habits under cultivation cannot survive among the wild con- 

 ditions if they escape from the garden and the care of man. 

 The breeding of plants for domestic use has made many 

 changes in the seeds as well as in other parts of the plant. 

 Seeds, such as beans, which are used for food have been 

 developed to increase the amount of plant food stored in 

 them; other seeds have been improved by the development 

 of strains that germinate quickly and in a uniform time. 



Most mature seeds of wild plants are in a resting con- 

 dition for varying lengths of time during which they are 

 unable to germinate. Seeds of some cultivated plants such 

 as petunia and portulaca fall to the ground during the sum- 

 mer and remain dormant until spring; others, such as lark- 

 spur, are dormant for a short period after which they grow 

 a good tap root system and a rosette of leaves in the late 

 summer; but the seeds of many cultivated plants have no 

 resting period or one of only a few days. This lack of a r€st 

 period explains the sprouting of farm crops when unfavor- 

 able weather occurs at harvest time. Since seeds are capable 



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