CHAPTER II. 



SEEDS : THEIR STRUCTURE AND GERMINATION. 



I. It is well known that one of the most ordinary methods of 

 raising plants is to sow what are called seeds, yet how few there 

 are among the many who use them who fully appreciate their 

 real nature and capabilities. This want of knowledge is not due 

 perhaps so much to want of interest in them, as to the fact that 

 for their proper management they are usually buried away in the 

 ground, and are therefore unseen ; moreover, many of them are so 

 small that their structure is difficult to observe with the naked eye. 



In order to understand the true nature of a seed it is neces- 

 sary to examine its origin and construction, and watch its 

 development as far as possible from the earliest stages to the 

 time when it gives rise to a completely formed young plant. 



The Common Bean. — A broad bean is one of the largest seeds 

 met with in ordinary farm or garden practice, and as its parts 

 are all sufficiently large to be observed without the special aid 

 of anything more than 

 an ordinary pocket lens, 

 it is especially fitted for 

 study. 



When a nearly ripe pod 

 of a broad bean plant is 

 opened, each seed within 

 it is found attached to 

 the inside by means of ^.^ „. , , j l • v , • , , ^ 



J ElG. I. — Piece of bean pod showing the funicle (/) 



a short stalk ox funicle and its attached seed 



^ig. i), and it is through this stalk that all the nourishment 



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