CHAPTER VIII 

 FRUITS AND SEEDS 



65. Ftmctions of Fruits and Seeds. — Protection, dis- 

 persal, and germination — these are the three great func- 

 tions with which fruits and seeds are concerned. Fruits 

 are usually concerned only with the first two of these 

 functions ; seeds are concerned with all three. The thing 

 which is to be protected and nourished, the thing which 

 needs to be dispersed, to be carried away from its parent 

 to a place favorable for its future life, the thing whose 

 successful germination is so important — that thing is, 

 of course, the young plant which lies dormant within 

 the tissues of the seed, the young plant whose existence 

 it has been the whole work of the flower to accomplish. 

 That dormant young plant you know as the embryo, and 

 the renewal of its growth is what is commonly called the 

 germination of the seed. 



Strictly speaking, however, seed germination is not ger- 

 mination at all. If it were, then seed plants would have 

 two germinations. Germination, strictly speaking, is the 

 beginning of the growth of a single cell into a many-celled 

 individual. It occurs when the fertilized egg divides and 

 redivides to form the embryo ; it does not occur when that 

 embryo simply starts to grow again. The embryo is simply 

 an arrested stage in the development of the young plant. 

 To speak of the germination of seeds is not objectionable, 

 however, if it is realized that this is a process entirely dif- 



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