CHAPTER VIII 



MULTIPLICATION OF PLANTS 



SEEDS. THE commonest method, whether in nature or in the field 

 and garden, for increasing the number of plants is by seeding, and 

 on this account, and also because seeds lend themselves to a 

 variety of simple but instructive experimental work, it is desirable 

 that the boys or girls should make some preliminary observations 

 of the conditions of germination, and on the germinative capacity 

 of various species of seeds. For this purpose it is best as a rule to 

 select large seeds, such as those of the Broad Bean, Pea, or Scarlet 

 Runner. For the study of the structure of a seed, peas may 

 be soaked in water for a few hours in order to soften them, 

 and then dissected, so as to show the seed coat, the seed leaves, 

 the plumule, and the radicle. Drawings should be made. To 

 show the changes resulting from germination, other seeds should 

 be placed between pieces of moist blotting paper or flannel, and 

 kept in a fairly warm room. If some of the seeds are just covered 

 with sand in a flower pot, and kept moist and warm, the way 

 in which the seedling roots itself in the soil can be studied. To 

 show the effect of temperature, one set of seeds may be placed 

 in a cold room and the other in a warm room ; the conditions 

 being otherwise the same, the growth in the latter case will be 

 much more rapid. It is a little more difficult to demonstrate the 

 necessity for oxygen, but if a supply of carbon dioxide is available 

 this may be done by moistening the seeds, placing them at the 

 bottom of a flask, and passing the washed gas through the flask 

 for a quarter of an hour. The flask is then quickly corked, and 

 should be kept in a warm place. 



It is easy and instructive to determine the germinative 

 capacity of various samples and species of seeds. To do this, 

 we take an exact and convenient number of seeds (fifty or one 

 hundred), place them between two pieces of flannel or blotting 



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