IGO 



SEED. 



of a Duiidle of hairs without branches, plumose when each hair Tias 

 other httle hairs arranged along its sides, like the beards on a feather. 



Fig 112. 



In Fig. 112, a, re- 

 presents the capil- 

 lary, or hair-like 

 egret ; ft, is a pedi- 

 celled egret; c and 

 d, show the styld 

 remaining, and 

 forming a plumose 

 train, as in the 

 virgin's bower and 

 Geum ; e, a Wing, as may be sfcen in the fir ; /, a sessile egret. 



General Remarks upon Seeds. 



The number of sfeeds in plants is variable; some have but one; 

 some, like the umbelliferous plants, have tvvo; some have four. The 

 number varies from these to thousands. A stalk of Indian corn is 

 said to have produced, in one season, two thousand seeds. A sun- 

 flower four thousand. A capsule of the poppy has been found toi 

 contain eight thousand seeds. It has been calculated that a single 

 thistle seed will produce, at the first crop, twenty-four thousand, and 

 atthe second crop, at this rate, five hundred and seventy-six millions. 

 In the same species of plants the number of seeds is often found to 

 vary. The apple, and many other fruits, might be given as examples. 



Seeds, according as they vary in size, have been divided into four 

 kinds; large, from the size of a walnut to that of the cocoa-nut; 

 middle size, neither larger than a hazel nut, nor smaller .than a millet 

 seed; small, between the size of the seeds of. a poppy and a bell- 

 flower; minute, like dust or powder, as in the ferns and mosses< 



When a pericarp separates itself from the parent plant, or when 

 the valves of the fruit open, the fruit has ceased to vegetate; like th^ 

 leaves at the end of autumn, it has lost its vital principle, and be- 

 comes subject to the laws which govern inorganized matter. 



The maturity of the seed marks the close of the Ufe of annual 

 plants, and the suspension of vegetation in woody and perennial 

 ones. Nature, in favouring by various means the dispersion of these' 

 seeds, presents phenomena worthy of our admiration, and these 

 means are as varied as the species of seeds which are spread over 

 the surface of the earth. 



The air, winds, rivers, seas, and animals, transport seeds and dis- 

 perse them in every direction. Those which are provided with 

 feathery crowns, or egrets, as the dandeUon and thistle, or with 

 Wings, as the maple and ash, are raised into the air and even carried 

 across the seas. LinnjeUs asserted that the Erigeron canadense wa3 

 introduced into Europe from America, by seeds wafted across the 

 Atlantic Ocdan. " The seeds," says he, " embark upon the riVerS 

 ivhich descend from the highest riiotintaiUs of Lapland, and arrive 

 ftt the middle of the plains^ and the coasts of the seas. The bceail 

 has thrown, even upon the coasts of Norway, the nuts of the ma- 

 hogany, and the fruit of the cocoanut-tree, borne on its waves from 

 the far distant, tropical regions ; and this wonderful voyage has 

 been performed without injury to the vital energy of the seeds." 



. : , - ■ J. 



Number of the seeds variable— Size variable— Separation of the pericarp from iht 

 plant— What is denoted by the matuiity of the seed 7— Dispersion of seeds, how effect- 

 ed'?— Seeds carried by water. 



