106 PBACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

 PROPAGATION OF PLANTS BY SEEDS. 



The most natural way of increasing plants is by seeds, 

 and, whenever practicable, it is preferable to all others. 

 In our own practice we rarely increase a plant in any 

 other way, if we can procure the seed, unless, of course, 

 with particular varieties that we know will not reproduce 

 themselves from seed, and perpetuate the desired color, 

 form, or markings. It is believed that no plant ever 

 produces identically the same individual from seed. The 

 resemblance may be so close that, to casual observation, 

 it may seem identical ; but reasoning from analogy, it is 

 fair to presume that no generated organisms of animal or 

 vegetable life, whether from the lowest molecule to the 

 highest type of existence, are ever identical. No two 

 human beings are ever identical in face or form ; and 

 even acquired habits, such as handwriting, are never the 

 same. 



Some species of animal and vegetable life, when under 

 domestication, become what is technically called "bro- 

 ken." Thus we find the pigeon, when domesticated, run- 

 ning into a great variety of plumage, while its proto- 

 types of the woods seem to be all alike ; but it is fair to 

 presume they each possess a distinct individuality, though 

 less apparent than the others. So it is in plant life. 

 When we sow 1,000 seeds of Verbena or Coleus, to 

 the experienced eye no two of the seedlings are ever 

 exactly the same, though the original types from which 

 they sprung will seem to produce varieties identical ; 

 but in this case also it is reasonable to presume that 

 a distinct individuality is present, though the distinction 

 is so slight that ordinary observation fails to mark it. 

 The eye requires to be educated to nice distinctions of 



