CHAPTER NINETEEN. 

 THE YOUNG OF THE HIGHER PLANTS. 



1. Vegetative Reproduction among Plants. Already 

 we have referred to the fact that many plants produce new 

 plants by buds, or tubers, or roots, or runners, and even 

 by leaves. The higher plants differ very much in respect 

 to this rough and ready kind of multiplication. Some 

 plants have none of these methods, others may use two 

 or three of them. 



2. The Older Idea of Reproduction in Plants. Until 

 recent years the reproduction of plants by seeds would 

 have been described as follows: 



"The seed contains an embryo. When the seed 

 germinates, the embryo breaks through and develops 

 roots and leaves that enable it to get its own nourishment. 

 It now grows until it becomes mature. The mature plant 

 forms flowers which are its reproductive organs. Each 

 complete flower, in addition to the protective and colored 

 parts (sepals and petals), contains both male and female 

 organs. The stamens are male organs and the pistils are 

 female organs. The pollen, arising from the stamen, is the 

 male cell and corresponds to the sperm, but has in itself 

 no power of motion. The ovary develops an egg cell deep 

 in each ovule. When the P9llen is carried to the stigma 

 and the pollen tube grows down into the ovule and unites 

 with the egg, the male cell is fertilizing the female cell.'' 



This is not the correct interpretation of sex reproduction 

 in plants, although it is the way in which many people 



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