THE LIFE. HISTORY OP PLANTS. 



85 



Alyssums is hard and semi- woody, and takes a long 

 while to root. Flowering so profusely as A. saxatile 

 flud other kindred species, the plants grow slowly. 

 Cuttings should be put in, in May, on a gentle 

 hot-hed, and hardened off and planted out as soon 

 as rooted. Thus treated they will bloom next year. 



The best of the Alyssums do not readily lend them 

 selves to root-division. But when this is possible, 

 it affords a ready means of increase, which should 

 never be over-looked or neglected. Some species 

 seed rather freely, but as a general rule, and in 

 most gardens, the better species of Alyssum seldom 

 seed very freely. When seeds do ripen, save, and 

 sow as soon as ripe, 

 choosing a nice shel- 

 tered place for them, 

 and sovring the seeds 

 thinly to give the 

 plants the full benefit 

 of light and air from 



, the first. It is had 

 practice to sow Alys- 

 sums under glass or 

 in any confined place, 

 as the plantlets are 

 most impatient of con- 

 finement, especially in 

 their infantile state. 

 To have them in per- 

 fection, they should 

 know no overcrowding 

 from the time they 

 break ground as seed- 

 lings until they die 

 of old age. 



What is popularly 

 knovTn as 'the Sweet 

 Alyssum in gardens 



is a free-blooming, honey-scented white aimual, 

 the most popular of the family, extensively used for 

 small beds and edgiftgs. Its botanical name is 

 Alyssum maritimmn. It should be sown in the open 

 air, where it is to bloom, at any time from February 

 to May. When once introduced into a bed or 

 border, it mostly reproduces itself, and holds its 

 own, with- little more trouble. There, is a variegated 



- variety of this, mostly propagated by cuttings, and 

 kept over the winter under glass, the same as 

 verbenas or other bedding plants, though this is also 

 hardy ' in mild localities. This is known as the 

 Koniga maritimum variegatum, grows to a height of 

 from six to nine inches, has small white not very 

 conspicuous flowers, but its narrow leaves are edged 

 with silver, and it is altogether a very neat yet 

 showy plant, weU worthy of cultivation for small 

 beds or edgings. 



THE LIFE-HISTOEY OF PLANTS. 



By De. Maxwell T. Mastehs, F.E.S. 



Altsscm Saxatile. 



GEUUI'SATIO'U. 



HAVING assisted at the launching of the new 

 growth, whether of seed or of bud, and having 

 indicated the natm-e of the mechanism, and of the 

 processes concei-ned in that growth, we are now in a 

 position to trace the subsequent career of the leaf- 

 bearing shoots which originate in the manner already 

 described. 



Taking- the seed first, the result of the processes 

 before alluded to is 

 made manifest in the 

 germination, not of 

 the seed, as we fami- 

 liarly but very incor- 

 rectly say, but in that 

 of the embryo plant 

 within the seed. So 

 long as it remains in 

 that position it may 

 be called the embiyo ; 

 whenit,is set free and 

 begins to take on an 

 independent existence, 

 it may be called , a 

 seedling ; from that 

 stage to that of the 

 young plant, and ulti- 

 mately to that of the 

 adult plant, bearing 

 fruit and seed, it 

 passes in one conti- 

 nuous chain, without 

 definite limits between 

 the several- stages. 

 The first step in the germination 



The Badicle.- 



of the embryo plant is invariably the protrusion 

 through the ruptured seed-coats of the radicle or 

 primary root. While still -wrapped up -within the 

 seed, the point of the radicle is in most cases 

 directed towards a smaU. opening in the seed-coat, 

 called technically the "micropyle."- Through that 

 aperture, which very speedily becomes enlarged 

 and lacerated by the swelling of the tissues of the 

 seed and of the embryo plant, emerges the radicle 

 (Fig. 12). 



It is usually of thread-like form, -with a, pointed 

 end covered and shielded by a thin extinguisher-like 

 cap, which preserves the young root from injury, as 

 it is thrust from above downwards into the soil. Why 

 the root descends more or less vertically into the 

 soil — why it should not grow on sideways, or up- 

 wards, according to the position of the seed — ^is a 



