SEEDS. 3 



ent ways and means ; and this time fair Daphne celebrates the 

 " concealed union " before Apollo has risen in the early morn- 

 ing, or when he dozes at noontide behind cushioned rain-clouds. 

 The male and female organs of Ferns and other flowerless 

 plants (cryptogams) are produced after the germination of the 

 spore ; and to enable the male fecundating bodies (spermato- 

 zoids) to travel to the female organs (archegonia), a thin film of 

 water between the two bodies is essential, and this is naturally 

 supplied by mist or dew or rain. This is the reason that the 

 terrible Potato fungus (Peronospora infestans) develops itself 

 most rapidly during wet weather ; indeed, like some other fungi, 

 it cannot develop itself unless in a moisture-laden atmosphere. 

 Plants may. be considered as the most noble of inanimate 

 organisms, and as such it would be marvellous to note the pre- 

 cision with which the types or species propagate or reproduce 

 themselves naturally, and in many cases unaided, had we not 

 come to look on the whole labour as an everyday matter of 

 course. We will, however, just glance at the principal methods, 

 sexual and vegetative, by which plants are naturally repro- 

 duced. 



SEEDS. 



" To watch the matchless working of the Power 

 That shuts within its seed the future flower." 



COWPEK. 



A large proportion of all known plants reproduce themselves 

 when in a state of nature from seeds which fall or are scattered 

 on the earth's surface as soon as they are ripe, and occasionally 

 are covered by the falling leaves, which not only afford some 

 protection from frost, but ultimately afford nutriment to the 

 young plant. This is a most interesting fact ; and one phase 

 of culture, the effects for good and evil of which are scarcely 

 sufficiently appreciated by cultivators, consists in a direct viola- 

 tion of this rule or natural law, since nearly all the seeds of 

 cultivated vegetables, hardy as well as tender, are kept out of 

 the ground from seed-time or harvest in summer or autumn, 

 until the succeeding spring. Again, the seeds of cultivated 

 plants are rarely allowed to remain on the plants until they are 

 perfectly ripe. Some wild plants, however, do not shed their 

 seeds until the warm sun-heat of spring causes the capsules to 

 burst ; and some writers contend that the action of frost is 

 beneficial to the seeds of all hardy plants rather than otherwise. 

 Many plants of strong constitution and rapid growth produce 

 large quantities of seed, and readily adapt themselves to any 



