DISSEMINATION OF SEEDS. 



BY MAKY N. PLUMKR. 



THE one great object of the plant from the time of 

 germination until the time of death is to provide nourish- 

 ment for the formation and perfecting of the fruit, for 

 the production and ripening of seeds. For this purpose 

 every plant was created ; for this, it exists ; for this, it 

 clings to life with wonderful tenacity under conditions 

 the most adverse. 



Varied as are seeds in their external form, their in- 

 ternal structure shows that all are adapted to the same 

 great end, the forming of plants which shall possess the 

 prominent characteristics of the mother plants. Each one 

 contains, neatly packed away, all of the parts essential to 

 the formation of a new plant ; each one, although show- 

 ing no signs of life, has within itself the principle of 

 life, destined under favorable conditions to display itself. 

 With truth has it been said that "the seed may be con- 

 sidered as that link in the chain of vegetable existence 

 which binds the old plant to the new." 



It has been found by careful examination that, from a 

 morphological point of view, terminal ovules or seeds 

 must be considered as the terminnl portion of an axis, 

 the lateral ones as equivalents of whole leaves, the mar- 

 ginal as branches of leaves (lobes, pinnaj, etc.). " During 

 the process of development, changes take place in the 

 structure and texture of these parts by which they become 

 fitted to perform the special offices assigned to them. 

 When they have reached the stage of maturity, they sep- 

 arate, sooner or later, from the parent plant and, either 



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