4 GROWTH OF THE PLANT FROM THE SKED. [LESSON 2. 



LESSON II. 



THE GROWTH OF THE PLANT FROM THE SEED, 



12. The Course of Vegetation. We see plants growing from the 

 seed in spring-time, and gradually developing their parts : at length 

 they blossom, bear fruit, and produce seeds like those from which 

 they grew. Shall we commence'' the study of the plant with the 

 full-grown herb or tree, adorned with flowers or laden with fruit ? 

 Or shall we commence with the seedUng just rising from the 

 ground ? On the whole, we may get a clearer idea of the whole 

 life and structure of plants if we begin at the beginning, that is, with 

 the plantlet springing from the seed, and follow it throughout its 

 course of growth. This also agrees best with the season in which 

 the study of Botany is generally commenced, namely, in the spring 

 of the year, when the growth of plants from the seed can hardly 

 fail to attract attention. Indeed, it is this springing forth of vegeta- 

 tion from seeds and buds, after the rigors of our long winter, — 

 clothing the earth's surface almost at once with a mantle of freshest 

 verdure, — which gives to spring its greatest charm. Even the 

 dullest beholder, the least observant of Nature at other seasons, 

 can then hardly fail to ask : "What are plants ? How do they live 

 and grow ? What do they live upon ? What is the object and use 

 of vegetation in general, and of its particular and wonderfully various 

 forms ? These questions it is the object of the present Lessons to 

 answer, as far as possible, in a simple way. 



13. A reflecting as well as observing person, noticing the re- 

 semblances between one plant and another, might go on to inquire 

 whether plants, with all their manifold diversities of form and 

 appearance, are not all constructed on one and the same general 

 plan. It will become apparent, as we proceed, that this is the 

 case ; — that one common plan may be discerned, which each par- 

 ticular plant, whether herb, shrub, or tree, has followed much more 

 closely than would at first view be supposed. The differences, wide 

 as they are, are merely incidental. What is true in a general way 

 of any ordinary vegetable, will be found to be true of all, only with 

 great variation in the details. In the same language, though in 

 varied phrase, the hundred thousand kinds of plants repeat the same 



