iOO 
SEED. 
of a Duiidle of hairs without branches, plumose when each hair has '\ 
other httle hairs arranged along its sides, Uke the beards on a feather. 
Fig. 112. In Fig. 112, a, re- 
* presents the capil- . 
lary, or hair-like i 
egret ; 6, is a pedi- 
celled egret; c and 
d, show the style 
remaining, and | 
forming a plumose 
train, as in the 
virgin's bower and 
Geum ; e, a wing, as may be seen in the fir ; f, a sessile egret. 
General Remarks upon Seeds. 
The number of seeds in plants is variable; some have but one ; 
some, like the umbelliferous plants, have two; some have four. The 
number varies from these to thousands. A stalk of Indian corn is 
said to have produced, in one season, two thousand seeds. A sun- 
flower four thousand. A capsule of the poppy has been found to 
contain eight thousand seeds. It has been calculated that a single 
thistle seed will produce, at the first crop, twenty-four thousand, and 
atthe second crop, at this rate, five hundred and seventy-six millions. 
In the same species of plants the number of seeds is often found to 
vary. The apple, and many other fruits, might be given as examples. ^^j^ 
Seeds, according as they vary in size, have been divided into four^Ji 
kinds; large, from the size of a walnut to that of the cocoa-nut; 
middle size, neither larger than a hazel nut, nor smaller than a millet 
seed ; small, between the size of the seeds of a poppy and a bell- ^ 
flower; minute, like dust or powder, as in the ferns and mosses. «sJ| 
When a pericarp separates itself from the parent plant, or when ^ 
the valves of the fruit open, the fruit has ceased to vegetate ; like the 
leaves at the end of autumn, it has lost its vital principle, and be- jl 
comes subject to the laws which govern inorganized matter. 
The maturity of the seed marks the close of the life of annual 
plants, and the suspension of vegetation in woody and perennial 
ones. Nature, in favouring by various means the dispersion of these 
seeds, presents phenomena worthy of our admiration, and these 
means are as varied as the species of seeds which are spread over 
the surface of the earth. 
The air, winds, rivers, seas, and animals, transport seeds and dis- 
perse them in every direction. Those which are provided with 
feathery crowns, or egrets, as the dandelion and thistle, or with 
wings, as the maple and ash, are raised into the air and even carried 
across the seas. Linnseus asserted that the Erigeron canadensewas 
introduced into Europe from America, by seeds wafted across tl e 
Atlantic Ocean. " The seeds," says he, " embark upon the rivers 
wnich descend from the highest mountains of Lapland, and arrive 
at the middle of the plains, and the coasts of the seas. The ocean 
has thrown, even upon the coasts of Norway, the nuts of the ma- 
hogany, and the fruit of the cocoanut-tree, borne on its waves from 
the far distant, tropical regions ; and this wonderful voyage has 
been performed without injury to the vital energy of the seeds." 
Number of the seeds variable— Si/o variable— Separation of the pericarp from the 
plant— What is denoted by the matuiity of ihe seed 7— Dispersion of seeds, how effect 
ed 7— Seeds carried by water. 
