CHAPTER XIX 



THE REST-PERIOD OF SEEDS 



If everything comes from the egg, it is certain all lines of 

 biological investigation lead back to it, and thus it is that in 

 the resting seed our interests converge towards that point in a 

 plant's life. Many botanists of eminence have dealt with this 

 matter, and the salient facts must be familiar to my readers. 

 There are, however, certain aspects of the subject which have 

 come more particularly under my notice ; and ever since I studied 

 the vivipary of Mangroves, like Rhizophora and Bruguiera, in 

 the Pacific, twelve to fifteen years ago, the matter of the rest- 

 period of seeds has been frequently before my mind. 



The rest-period represents a break in the continuity of the A break in 

 young plant's existence. As Goebel well puts it, the seed here of a*^young^ ^ 

 submits to an interruption in its development ; and so it is P'^"^'^ '*^^- 

 that the real mystery of the seed lies not so much in the 

 resumption of active vitality implied in germination as in the 

 suspension of its vitality. That singular phase in a seed's 

 life, the entering into the rest-period when it is quite able 

 to proceed continuously with its growth and to go on to 

 germination, is the true mystery. The potential vivipary of 

 plants I hope to establish later, meaning thereby the inherent 

 ability of the embryo to proceed with its growth. 



But in the first place it is necessary to acquire a correct The degree 

 notion of the prevalence of the resting habit in seeds, since we vaieiTce of 

 are apt to invest this character of seeds with a universality that h'^t-^.^fn^"^ 

 it does not actually possess and with a persistence that it can seeds. 



417 27 



