226 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



January, 1916 



Some Plain Facts 

 About Our Kind 

 of Nursery Stock 



\SfS * FINE, full topped tree or | 

 /&%? /\ shrub, without an abundant 

 ■*• ^ supply of fine roots; is like an 

 eight passenger auto with a four 

 passenger engine. It goes along 

 all right on the level, but stalls on 

 the hills. 



Such fine topped trees may grow all right 

 in a Nursery; but when dug, shipped and 

 transplanted, they have not the root power 

 to carry them over the hill of transplanting 

 at a good speed. 



So, they either stand still entirely the first 

 year, or creep along exasperatingly slow. 



First, we develop root power in our nursery 

 stock. Then we keep on developing it. 

 Sturdy, splendid tops follow as a natural 

 result. 



Our soil is an unusual one; so friable, that 

 in digging our stock, the roots are not cut off 

 or torn apart and many of the vital, nourish- 

 ment absorbing rootlets left in the ground. 



We sell you tops, roots and all. You get 

 exactly what we sell you. We ask no more 

 for tops, roots and all, than you pay for the 

 other kind. Even if ours did cost more, it is 

 evident which is worth more. 



We are an old established firm. Np 

 choicer collections of trees, shrubs and hardy 

 I plants can be found anywhere. Send for 

 j our catalog. 



H&TMr^kaasi/^Nirscrics 



|\/B.WHITTrER & CO. - FRAMINGHAM MASS. 



K 



-- ■:--j,-# £gafrj 



HAKUI IrLiAIN 1 Owe are specialists 

 in Hardy Perennials, Shrubs and Trees grown in a cold 

 climate under natural field conditions. We help you plan 

 your grounds and select the right plants. 



Get our catalogue before you buy 

 CEDAR HEDGE FARM ASSOCIATION 



Cedarburg, Wisconsin 



Memorandum 



from the 

 Advertising 

 Department 



ADVERTISING suggestions are furnished 

 ■lX free by this department to old and new 

 and prospective advertisers in The Garden 

 Magazine. 



This service enables our advertisers to reach 

 our readers by a more direct route than is many 

 times taken. This "Open Sesame" is advertis- 

 ing that conforms as much as may be to the 

 general taste of the readers of that magazine 

 in which it is published. Being on "The In- 

 side," we are able to suggest how our readers 

 may be best interested in your product. 



This service is entirely supplementary to 

 that of those who have regular methods of 

 handling their advertising. It is a primary 

 service to those who have not regular publicity 

 systems of their own, or at their command. 

 So if you contemplate taking advertising space 

 and desire our assistance, it is yours on request. 

 Write, giving full particulars and descriptive 

 literature. 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 

 Advertising Department, 1 1 West 32nd Street, N.Y. 



Gardening for Young Folks 



Conducted by Ellen Eddy Shaw 



How A Plant Is Born 



A BABY with a basket of food all neatly packed 

 up — that's what a seed really is. How does 

 the embryo wake into life, how does it get at its 

 focd, just where is the food supply — these are the 

 questions each dry seed 

 calls to mind. A few seeds 

 are germinated on a bit of 

 ■ /) moist Dlotter and in this 

 old hackneyed experi- 

 ment are the elements of 

 a story of life. Do all 

 seeds come to life in the 

 same way? Dear no! The 

 position of the germ of 

 life in a seed, the amount 

 of its food and the sort 

 of outside covering of the 

 special seed are keys to 



gardening, telling one how 

 A grain of corn, cut through f ^ ° the see 6 d m the 



seems rather confused. A j j *., i_ , 



, , ground and exactly what 



is the reserve food supply _ / ■, 



, ■ .. .... one ma y expect from it 



for the young plant seen j . ■, \_ , 



4. t, , , , and to what degree one 



at B (part which grows m ass j st# 



to stem) and C (which be- .-fi • •" 



The origi- 

 comes root) i 



' nal parent 



plant which produced the seed 

 started this life ball rolling by pro- 

 viding a food supply for the young 

 embryo. This provision was made 

 either by cotyledons or seed leaves, or by 

 a special reserve of food laid down within 

 the seed coat in a special chamber, spot or 

 storehouse, call it what you like. In the 

 first case the parent itself fills with food the 

 cells of the seed leaves (cotyledons) and 

 later, when just the right time arrives, the 

 embryo feeds upon this reserve converting 

 it into hypocotyl, or the stem of the embryo, 

 into plumule or bud, and 

 into the radicle or root 

 end. So this food nour- 

 ishes the entire young 

 plant-to-be, causing all 

 these parts to develop; 

 and the cotyledons are 

 really the building ma- 

 terial of the young life 

 of the plant. This is 

 simple enough, this con- 

 version of fat, starch, 

 and proteid from the 

 cotyledon pantry into good, husky, young, hustling 

 plant life. The bean is an example of this method 

 of food supply. 



In the other case the food supply is by itself, and 

 called the endosperm. 

 It is not a part of the 

 embryo, as the food 

 supply is in the bean. 

 The corn seed is an ex- 

 ample of this sort of 

 food storage. And in 

 reality the second type 

 of embryonic feeding 

 adds even more to the 

 story since it represents 

 a complicated perform- 

 ance. Here is a special 

 food supply which must 

 be taken by 

 the cotyle- 

 don and 

 which acts 

 as an 

 agent, a construction en- 

 gineer as it were, to put 

 the food supply in the 

 shape of available tissue- 

 building material for the 

 embryo. 



See how the baby bearuplant 

 is tucked away comfortably 

 between the two big "seed 

 leaves " 



The embryo has its own problem, not of nourish- 

 ment, but of escaping from its confines. For the 

 plant embryo is not carelessly put away but is pro- 

 tected by a seed coat. If great external dangers are 

 to threaten, then this 

 seed coat has various and 

 divers protective de- 

 vices. This heavy outer 

 covering, of course, 

 makes the work of ex- 

 pulsion great. Take 

 such a case as the date 

 seed having a covering 

 so thick that gardeners 

 file it to save the energy 

 of the plantlet in the 

 process of germination. 

 It would be fun to ger- 

 minate some date seed 

 and raise some little 

 Date Palms. Date 



Palms are stiff plants not nearly as. 



graceful as those you buy at a 



florist for Date Palms. These are 



usually a variety called Phoenix 



canariensis while the Palms from 



which real dates come are Phoenix 



dactylifera. So remember when 



you buy a Date Palm you haven't 



a Date Palm after all! 



To show a wonderful device for 



germination teachers often use 



squash, or gourd seeds. I wonder 



how vividly these experiments register on the 



mind of the pupil the idea of the great birth 



struggle of these seeds and their own provisions 



for help. As the seed coat begins to split in 



these seeds there develops where the hypocotyl 



and radicle meet a sort of hook-like projection 



which presses the lower part of the seed coat 



down and holds it there, the upper coat springs. 



away and out comes the cotyledons. Think 



of the energy saved to that young plantlet- 



The seeds of this group, melons, cucumbers,. 



squash, gourds, and pumpkins are placed flat 



on the ground and not on end or on 



No 



The bean plant has some exercise in get- 

 ting the leaves free from the shell and lifts 

 the case up in the air. Plant shallow 



matter 



how the 



seed was 



p la n t e d 



the hook 

 would do its work but 

 not as well; nor would 

 the cotyledons be fed 

 in just the right way 

 to start straight at their upward 

 work. 



Again corn and beans; or 

 peas and squash are used be- 

 cause they represent two entirely 

 different ways of behavior. You 

 see that the bean plant struggles 

 up through the soil bearing with 

 it its food supply. Not so the 

 corn ; it leaves the food supply be- 

 low in the ground. These phe- 

 nomena are due to the simple 

 fact that the hypo- 

 cotyl in the bean 

 lengthens greatly 

 during germina- 

 tion; this is not 

 true in the case of 

 the corn and the 

 pea. The draw- 

 ings used with 

 this article are 

 after Atkinson, 

 Curtis, and Bailey 

 Coleman. 



The corn, having no case to hamper 

 the leaves of the young plant, may 

 be planted deeper than a bean 



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