io Science of Plant Life 



its welfare on the activities of the other parts, so the life 

 of each part of a plant is bound up with the life of the plant 

 as a whole. 



Reproduction an essential process in plant life. Plants, 

 to be successful, not only must maintain themselves but they 

 must reproduce themselves. Some of them do this by fur- 

 ther development of a part of the parent body, as the tuber 

 of a potato or the runner of a strawberry plant. In many 

 plants, however, reproduction takes place only through the 

 production of flowers, fruits, and seeds. These structures in 

 one way or another are concerned with the production of a 

 small, undeveloped plant within the seed, and it is upon the 

 further growth of this young plant that the production of 

 another generation of that particular kind of plant depends. 

 A sunflower may develop a tall stem and a large leaf area, 

 but unless it flowers and produces good seed no young plants 

 can be grown from it. If it were the only sunflower in ex- 

 istence, there could be no more sunflowers after its death. 

 The process of reproduction must, therefore, be considered 

 as an essential one in plants; without it plant life would 

 soon disappear from the earth. 



