PLANT LIFE. 39 



tree. Should a limb get broken, one or more of these latent 

 buds would be forced into growth to supply its place. If a root 

 gets broken the leaves repair the damage by sending out new 

 roots to supply the top with its wonted food. Should the top 

 lose its vigor from any cause so that it could not receive the 

 juices sent up to its manufactory, the roots stimulate the latent 

 buds along the trunk and limbs into growth, and numerous 

 suckers, as they are called, make their appearance to assist the 

 top in doing its work. 



A further illustration of the power of the bud to individualize 

 itself, is seen in the layering of grape, when the eye or bud 

 throws down roots and becomes entirely independent of the 

 mother plant. Many plants are propagated in this way, as also 

 by cuttings and other methods. 



The beginning of the individual plant is in the seed. It is 

 then a plant in miniature. The seed is now independent of the 

 mother plant, and we will now watch its course of development. 

 We will cover it with soil, and subject it to the combined influ- 

 ence of moisture, heat and air, so that it may bring its vital 

 forces into action, and germinate. 



In every seed there is a little store of food for infant growth. 

 Moisture is necessary to dissolve and transform these little stores 

 of starch, sugar and other substances in the seed, into suitable 

 food for the young plant. On this it will feed until it throws 

 down its little rootlets into the soil, and its leaf-stalk up into 

 the light and air, and then these two parts work in unison. 

 When the plant has thus developed itself into roots and branches, 

 the food in the seed will have been exhausted and the plant must 

 depend wholly on the root and leaf for its support. It is curious 

 to observe the ingredients that are so carefully stored away in 

 the seed for the infant germ — starch and sugar — or substances 

 convertible into sugar, which are nearly the same as are furnished 

 by the human mother for her tender infant. 



It is also said that the seed, in germinating, generates heat 

 within itself. The degree of heat necessary for germination 

 varies with different species, but generally a temperature of 

 about fifty degrees is required. Blackston says : " The whole 

 progress of plants, from the seed to the root, and from thence 

 again to the seed ; the method of animal nutrition, digestion, 

 secretion, and all other branches of vital economy, are not left 



