41 8 Plant Multiplication. [Sess. 



tiny representative of the vegetable kingdom will be found : 

 in this case, however, the entire plant is carried away. 



I now take up the second part of my communication — 

 viz., the natural multiplication of plants, or their propagation 

 by sexual reproduction. The seed is, in fact, a living plant 

 in suspended vitality, until fitting circumstances occur to call 

 it into active life. The examination of seed-vessels and their 

 included seeds will show the great differences presented by 

 them in size and form — such as large, medium, and small ; 

 some with hooks, and others with gland-tipped hairs ; many 

 smooth, and some viscid or glutinous. Now there is a reason 

 for all these peculiarities. Many seeds require protection, for 

 instance, from birds or insects ; hence the shell or pericarp 

 of the walnut and filbert are composed of a firm hard substance. 

 The burdock {Arctium majus) has a wonderful mechanism for 

 the dispersion of its seeds. The scales of the involucre all 

 end in minute firm hooks, which seize hold of everything that 

 passes by. Goose-gTass {Galium ai)arinc) has weak stems 

 several feet long, adhering by their hooked prickles to every 

 object in their way. The seed of the beech {Fagus sylvatica) 

 is enclosed in a spiny four-lobed capsule. In many of our 

 wild roses the fruit and stalk are furnished with glandular 

 hairs. Various plants of humble growth have the calyx 

 closed over the seed-vessel when the flower fades, and open 

 when the seeds are ripe. In the coltsfoot {Tussilago farfara) 

 the stalk is upright when the flowers have just expanded, 

 is close to the ground after the flowers have faded, and rises 

 again when the seeds are ripe. In the poppy the calyx falls 

 off immediately on the expansion of the petals. To compensate 

 for this, the capsule is furnished with a star-shaped lid pro- 

 jecting over the seed-vessel, with a series of apertures at 

 regular intervals somewhat like a pepper-box- — with holes 

 not on the top, however, where rain might get in, but under 

 the rim, to keep the contained seeds dry, when every breeze 

 that blows scatters them about. The stalk of the screw moss 

 {Funaria hygrometrica) has the remarkable property of twist- 

 ing like a wire-spring in dry weather, and again unwinding 

 when moistened by dew or rain — evidently for the dis- 

 persion of the spores. In the genus Cyclamen, the flower- 

 stalk curls itself up into a spiral after the flower has faded, 



