CHAPTER Vi 
THE FACTORS OF LIFE—THE PRESERVATION OF THE 
RACE—THE CARE OF THE CHILDREN (continued) 
SETTLING DOWN FOR LIFE 
FFICIENT dispersal is beyond all doubt a matter 
of paramount importance in the Vegetable world, 
but it is by no means the only necessity which has 
to be provided for if the seeds, when they have reached 
a suitable spot, are to germinate thereon and the 
seedlings to attain to maturity. 
If we take a few seeds of the small Garden Convol- 
vulus, which unlike the Bindweed and the Corn 
Convolvulus is not a twiner, and if we place some of 
them on the soil and others about an inch beneath 
it in a separate pot, we shall find that in the latter 
case the seedlings do all right, whereas in the former 
the great majority perish in early infancy, their death 
being due to one or more of the following causes. 
The supply of surface moisture may prove to be 
insufficient for such comparatively large seeds even 
when they are kept well watered; or the radicle, 
which is the first rootlet, may fail to penetrate the 
soil; or the cotyledons, or seed leaves, which are in 
most species so different from their successors, may 
not be able to get free from the seed-coat: and for 
successful germination every one of these three 
necessities must be satisfied, while in addition the 
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