1/8 A NEW ZEALAND NATURALIST'S CALENDAR. 



become dormant for a time in order that the individuals 

 may be distributed. Nearly all plants are fixed organisms, 

 but in order that the race may be distributed, so that 

 individuals of the same kind may enter as little as possible 

 into competition with each other, there must be some stage 

 or period of their life when the organism can be carried 

 hither and thither without injury. This is the stage 

 represented by the seed. The embryo is developed while it 

 is still in the parent plant, and the extent to which its 

 development is carried in the seed is extremely varied. 

 Thus in the parsnip the embryo is only slightly developed, 

 and a relatively large quantity of food material has to be 

 stored up beside it to feed it when germination commences, 

 until it can produce its own root and leaves. So a parsnip, 

 as every gardener knows, takes some six weeks to show its 

 leaves above ground after the seeds are sown. A pea, on 

 the other hand, is all embryo, and it only takes a short 

 time to show its point above the soil ; but its first leaves 

 are only store organs and do not rise above the surface. 

 Lastly, a radish or similar crucifer is most highly developed 

 of all; its leaves are folded up in the seed, are already 

 green and prepared at once to enter on the work of digestion 

 of the food, so that as soon as the radicle has penetrated 

 the soil the young plant lifts these two leaves into the air 

 and the light. It is therefore only the question of a few 

 days between the sowing and the springing of the seed of 

 the radish. These three common plants well illustrate the 

 differences of degree of development shown by seeds. 



III. 



Late as the present season is and it is about three or 

 four weeks behind the average of the past two decades 

 flowers begin to be more abundant, and with the lengthen- 

 ing of the days it is more easy to find opportunities to 

 examine them. Indeed, objects of interest in both the 

 animal and vegetable world now crowd upon the attention 

 of the lover of nature, and the difficulty is not what to 

 look for but what to select for observation. 



