Mat 15, 18^5.1 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



409 



snapdragons, veronicas, foxgloves, and n grent many more 

 of our prettiest wild and cultivated jilants, several attbrd 

 seeds worth notice. The garden Antirrfihtum has small, 

 dark, roundish, deeply-pitted seeds. Foxglove (Di(fit(,tHs) 

 has very small seeds, paler brown, somewhat oblong, and 

 very finely marked. Linaria seeds are very small, black, 

 with transverse raised bands, spotted over with glittering 

 dots. Another species (/V>v';i) present ((uite another 

 aspect, being rrtther larger, and the germinating part con- 

 taiced in a little flat bag, with a rim round it. It is 

 covered with minute projections. Evening i>ride (Nycti- 

 ciiia) seeds ditVer again, being like minute lumps of jujube, 

 pitted in drying. 



KigeUa hispanica, which belongs to the llanunculus, or 

 Buttercup family, has its seeds in the shape of jilump black 

 bags about one-sixteenth of an inch long, elegantly marked 

 with longitudinal and also transverse ribs, forming a net- 

 work. 



Amongst the Pink family seeds of Dianthus barhaius 

 may be noticed as flattish, shrivelled black bags abundantly 

 decorated with hundreds of minute furrows and tubercles. 

 The garden Lychnis (Ragged Robin) has somewhat kidney- 

 shaped seed?, with numerous rows of tubercles. 



7,. 



increases the perspective elVnct for those who have tolerably 

 well-paired eyes. Tn all cases where a given magnification 

 is required for an irregular object, with parts in dillerent 

 planes, it will be found better to use a lower power and a 

 B eye-piece, than a higher one and an A eye-piece. The 

 former arrangement gives much more penetration. 



A sufficient study of the structure of the coverings and 

 appendages of seeds would, no doubt, show an adaptation 

 to the wants of the plant germs. A thick integment must 

 attbrd more protection than a thin one. A rough one may, 

 besides getting a firmer hold of the ground, be absorbent of 

 moisture, and prevent that rapid drying up which a smooth- 

 coated seed might sulier. Ap|)endages favouring dis- 

 persion are readily recognised, and their use is obvious ; 

 but the elaborate lace-work of the Paulownia, and similarly- 

 provided seeds, is not so easily r(ferr(!d to the standard of 

 utility, though it is probably only want of knowledge tliat 

 prevents its comprehension. The Micrographic Dictionary 

 mentions, under the head of seeds of special interest, several 

 not in Carter's list, and for mounting in Canada Balsam 

 specifies Parnassia, Drosera, Orchis, Pyrola, Saxifraga, 

 Monotropa, Hydrangea, Rhododendron. 



Besides looking at seeds as wholes with low powers their 



wrmm 





tela 



Pig. 2. — Portion of the fringe 

 enlarged ( x 150). 





Fig. 1. — Paalownia imperialia seed ( x 30). 



EschoUzia tenuifolia seeds are about one-sixteenth of an 

 inch in diameter, roundish, and very rugged, looking, under 

 the microscope, like one of the deeply-fissured corals. 



White Poppy seed is whitish, translucent, and elegantly 

 reticulated. ^Mountain sylph, a garden gentian, exhibits a 

 series of bands with furrows and markings, giving it some- 

 what the aspect of a maize cob. 



Calampdis seeds are like black bags, with a light lace 

 fringe. Paulov:nia imperialis seeds afford remarkably 

 beautiful specimens of this lace-work decoration, as shown 

 in the appended sketch, but a very much finer engraving 

 would be required to do it justice. 



It would be tedious to run through a longer list. About 

 half the specimens in Carter's 100 kind box possess con- 

 siderable beauty, and a good many of the others are of 

 interest for the sake of comparison. They are sent out in 

 little round wooden boxes, and a handy plan of preparing 

 them for view under the microscope is to put a drop of gum 

 inside the lids of the boxes a let a few of the seeds stick in 

 it, of course, avoiding using enough of the liquid to soil the 

 upper surfaces. 



Most of the seeds can be well shown with a ,3 inch 

 objective and B eye-piece, and they look best in strong lamp- 

 light, which can be thrown on them by a bull's-eye, or, 

 better, with a silver reflector. A binocular instrument 



hairs, lace-work appendages, and often the cell-structure of 

 their integuments should be 8e|)arated and viewed with 

 more magnification. Polarised light is often efiective with 

 hairs, but the lace-wovk of Paulownia does not act sufliciently 

 upon it. 



The custom of sowing so many seeds in the course of 

 agriculture and gardening tends to draw attention from the 

 fact that the great majority of plants have to take care of 

 their own offspring, and those would soon fail whose seeds 

 could not successfully perform their part in the great life 

 struggle. When studying the character of seed appendages 

 and integuments regard should be had to the various diffi 

 culties in the way of their getting fixed in suitable places 

 and escaping the notice or the attacks of their enemies. 

 The farmer and the gardener put their seeds in clean, cleai 

 ground, and carefully cover them up. Wild seeds have no 

 such care taken of them, and a great many wild plants, 

 'instead of gaining by such artificial attentions, perish undei 

 them. 



The subjoined list comprehends the mo.st interesting in 

 Carter's collection. The seeds are all sterilised to stop 

 sprouting, so they are useless for propagation. 



Carrot, Calliopsis, Tagctes, Acroelinium (Sand Rose), Arctotis 

 (Golden Wheel), Amblyolepis, Calliopsis coronata, Centaurea, 

 CyanuB major and minor, Palafoxia, Pyrethrum, Sauvitalia 



