BOTANY FOR GARDENERS. 



521 



being, and answer me directly, some progress will have been gained, 

 and this discussion will be more instructive and satisfactory to your 

 readers. If it can be proved that the terminal flowers are the best, 

 naturally, of course, it follows that they will also become the best in 

 the hands of the cultivator who grows them for exhibition or any other 

 purpose. It stands to reason that the bud which is in a position to 

 receive the direct force from the roots will be the first and the best — 

 and that is the position which a top bud of a Chrysanthemum plant 

 occupies. There are numbers of plants of a similar habit that behave 

 in the same manner — the Strawberry, for example, the first flowers 

 on a scape of which are always the best. Chrysanthemums will soon 

 be in flower ; let Mr Hinds send a plant — root and top all intact — that 

 has been grown as I suggested, and let the Editor decide who is right 

 in the matter. I will do this if needful, but prefer to give my 

 opponent the chance. 



The Author of the Article in a Contemporary. 



BOTANY FOR GAKDENERS. 



NO. X. — SEEDS {continued). 



To watch the growth of various seeds is an extremely interesting 

 study, and one of which I am very fond. I often grow some Peas 

 and Beans on a very damp cloth or wet moss : the latter is best, as it 

 retains moisture much longer than the former. It must not, of course, 

 be supposed that they will continue to grow very long, as they will 

 simply do so until the radicle and plumule are about a quarter to half 

 an inch long. A better plan still is to grow them in a light soil and 

 examine them every week, when you cannot fail to notice the elonga- 

 tion of the radicle, kc 



To give the reader a better idea of the inner structure of the cotj'- 

 ledons, and also bud of the future 



plant, here is a little sketch of an P d 



embryo of the Pea, minus its skin, 

 and opened carefully, c c represents 

 the cotyledons or seed-lobes ; t, com- 

 mon axis, whence both radicle and 

 plumule proceed, which is united by 

 a short petiole; ^v, plumule ; r, radicle ; 

 and </, a small aperture in which ^ 



rested the bud. 



We may reasonably infer that, before the radicle is capable of ob- 

 taining its own food, it is supplied to it from the cotyledons ; the 

 radicle, as it increases in size, sinks into the earth, assumes the form 

 of a root, and becomes not only its own food-supplier, but that of the 



