Seed (botany)

“ Opposite the micropyle in the bean (at the other end of the hilum) is an elevation known as the raphe. [22] This is formed by a union of the funiculus, or seed-stalk, with the seed-coats, and through it food was transferred for the development of the seed, but it is now functionless.
Seeds differ wonderfully in size, shape, colour, and other characteristics. They also vary in longevity. These characteristics are peculiar to the species or kind. Some seeds maintain life only a few weeks or even days, whereas others will “keep” for ten or twenty years. ”

“ Light is not necessary, and in winter time the neighborhood of the furnace is often a very convenient place to keep them safe from frost. They should not be in the sun while germinating. When the first sprouts appear above the ground let another set be planted, and so on, till a series is obtained ranging from plants several inches high to those just starting from the seed. The seeds themselves should be soaked for a day and the series is then ready for study. The time required for their growth varies according to the temperature, moisture, etc. ”

“ The seed becomes free only through decay or by being fed upon by animals. Those which escape digestion are thus disseminated by the latter. Of dry fruits many are indehiscent; and these are variously arranged to be transported by animals. Some burst irregularly; many are
Dehiscent, that is, they split open regularly along certain lines, and discharge the seeds. A dehiscent fruit almost always contains many or several seeds, or at least more than one seed.
Fig. 371. Leafy shoot and berry (cut across) of the larger Cranberry, Vaccinium macrocarpon.
Fig. 372, 373. Pepo of Gourd, in section. ”

“ In these the axis remains short, nearly as it is in the bud; the leaves therefore remain close together in sets or circles; the outer ones, those of the calyx, generally partake more or less of the character of foliage; the next set are more delicate, and form the corolla, while the rest, the stamens and pistils, appear under forms very different from those of ordinary leaves, and are concerned in the production of seed. This view gives to Botany an interest which one who merely notices the shape and counts the parts of blossoms, without understanding their plan, has no conception of. ”

“ Said one amateur gardener to me when I gave him this advice: "Why should one be so particular about the seed? It's the culture that you give the plant that counts. Plant any kind of seed that happens to be handiest and take good care of the plants that grow from it and you'll have good vegetables." To some extent what he said was true, but he had yet to learn that there is a vast difference between ordinary seed and seed that has bred into it by careful culture the superior qualities which characterize the choicest varieties of all our garden plants. ”

“ Once upon the ground, the seed has to germinate if it can; its root has to pierce the soil or find a way in between crevices of rocks or sharp-edged stones. All the time it is exposed to danger from birds, beasts, and insects, which are only kept off by its resin. But it is difficult to see, for its colour is just that of dead pine needles and its shape is such that it easily slips into crevices. Then the seven or eight small green seed leaves break out of the tough seed coat, and the seedling is now a small tree two inches high. ”

“ Illustrations of this fact are frequently observed where earth from a considerable depth has been thrown up to the surface, when it often becomes covered with plants not usually seen in the neighbourhood, which have sprung from buried seeds. When all the necessary conditions for germination are fulfilled, the seed absorbs moisture, swells up, and sends out a shoot which rises to the surface, and a radicle which descends—the one destined to develop the leaves, the other the roots, by which the plant is afterwards to derive its nutriment from the air and the soil. ”

“ CHAPTER III. SELECTING AND SOWING SEEDS.
All individuals of the vegetable world are so created as to reproduce themselves from seed or its equivalent. Every plant that grows seems to possess the power to perpetuate its kind. All kinds of flowering plants can be grown from the seed, providing good, sound seeds are obtained, and they are placed under the proper influences to make them germinate and grow. ”

“ The importance of selecting the best in each class scarcely needs suggestion, having regard to constitution as well as the quality of the flowers. The seed should be sown as soon as ripe, or early in March, in well-drained pots, filled with sandy soil, which must be well watered previous to sowing. When this operation is completed, the seed must be lightly covered with coarse sand, a sheet of glass placed over the pot, and the latter stood in the hand glass, where the offsets are rooted. ”

“ If so, plant the seeds at home.
When you have planted your seeds, unless you take them up every day, you cannot see how the little plants are behaving down under the soil. I want to tell you how you can know some things that the plants are doing without disturbing them.
Choose an ordinary glass (Fig. 299) , roll up a piece of blotting [460] paper so that it is a trifle smaller than the glass, and place it inside. Between the blotting paper and the glass, put a few radish seeds or any kind of seed such as you planted in the soil. Keep the blotting paper moist and watch what happens. ”

“ Gathering seeds can be a delightful pastime. The following are most beneficial: seed heads of seeding grasses, Plantain, Chickweed, Shepherd’s Purse, Dock Groundsel, Clover, Teazle, Queen Anne’s Lace, Charlock, Smartweed, dandelion and thistles, except Burdock. These seeds are particularly good at moulting and mating times and a few are always relished as a treat. ”

“ I am going to talk a little this afternoon about seeds.
"Any reliable seed house can be depended upon for good seeds; but even so, there is a great risk in seeds. A seed may to all appearances be all right and yet not have within it vitality enough, or power, to produce a hardy plant.
"If you save seed from your own plants you are able to choose carefully. Suppose you are saving seed of aster plants. What blossoms shall you decide upon? Now it is not the blossom only which you must consider, but the entire plant. Why? Because a weak, straggly plant may produce one fine blossom. ”

“ Seeds are sown almost daily—flower seeds, such as annual carnations, petunias, antirrhinums, etc.; and vegetables, such as lettuce, leeks, onions, cauliflowers, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. There are also the gathering and packing of forced flowers and rhubarb, and the forcing of these and other plants. When possible, seed-beds are prepared in the open. ”

“ A hand lens costing from twenty cents to a dollar is almost indispensable in examining our seeds. The brief descriptions are necessarily made by using definite scientific terms, which are explained in a glossary at the close of the work. A few weeds are not illustrated, for the reason that the plants have ceased to produce seeds, such as the horse radish, and some of them are not conspicuously bad. Not far from half the illustrations are made from small seed-like fruits, likely to be mistaken for seeds, such as are produced by dandelions, burdocks, narrow-leaved dock, all grasses. ”

“ Each flower had two green sepals and five colored petals, also five stamens, so they knew it was an exogen, though it would have been harder to tell this from the thick, pulpy leaves and stem. The little seed-pod of each had a tiny cap which lifted off when the seeds were ripe, leaving a perfect cup, heaping full.
"You see, children," said the Chief Gardener, "weeds do not care to be either useful or ornamental. So they become rank and common, and lose their beautiful flowers. But somehow they never have any less seed. ”

“ We wish present visible growth, and so we must be willing to lend aid, and first aid to such seeds is to give them a whiff of moist heat to soften what has become more hard than desirable through man's intervention. For in wild nature the seed is sown as soon as it ripens, and falls to the care of the ground before the vitality [Pg 47] of the parent plant has quite passed from it. That is why the seed of a hardy plant, self-sown at midsummer, grows with so much more vigour than kindred seed that has been lodged in a packet since the previous, season. ”

“ Also in fingering the seeds, you will know why some are slow in germinating: these are either hard and gritty, sandlike, like those of the English primrose, smooth as if coated with varnish, like the pansy, violet, columbine, and many others, or enclosed in a rigid shell like the iris-hued Japanese morning-glories and other ipomeas. Heart of Nature is never in a hurry, for him time is not. What matters it if a seed lies one or two years in the ground? ”

“ SEED-SOWING AND TRANSPLANTING The gardening beginner will be well advised to obtain the greater number of his perennials as plants; but there are some which are easily grown from seeds, and seed-sowing is the method by which all the hardy annuals and biennials are to be raised. In the case of annual and biennial plants, such as sweet-peas, mignonette, nasturtiums, convolvuluses, nigellas, and the rest, the seed may well be sown in the open borders or beds, if the soil be but well dug and finely divided. ”

“ PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN.
TO form the seed seems to be the chief end of the plant. When in the vigor of its own maturity, and when receiving the sun's strongest rays and the earth's richest nourishment, the plant gathers all its resources, and devotes them to the building of the seed. When done, the seed itself, the embryo, commonly possesses little substance and serves little use beyond its primary purpose, the reproduction of the plant. ”

“ Let me see now how many different baby seeds do we know?417 Yes, we do know the radish seeds, many flower seeds, chicken seeds, bird seeds, corn, potatoes, and many others, and we can tell them all apart. The boy and girl baby seeds are too tiny to be seen with the eye. They are so small that it takes about two hundred of them in a row to make one inch. We can only see these human baby seeds with the aid of a microscope. It is such a precious seed that it cannot be intrusted to the ground or to a tree nest for development. ”

“ And the seed is taken out and is sown in spring in square beds, being very carefully cultivated; and then it is watered every fourth or fifth day; and when it has grown up it is again transplanted the next spring into a place where the ground is soft, and well-watered, and not very thin. And it bears fruit every year; some of which are fit to be gathered, and some are in flower, and some are becoming ripe at the same time. ”

“ The seeds, or properly fruits, are contained singly in a stony involucre or bract, which does not open until the enclosed seed germinates. The young involucre surrounds the female flower and the stalk supporting the spike of male flowers, and when ripe has the appearance of bluish-white porcelain. ”

“ Prick off the seedlings when about an inch high, putting the plants in down to the seed-leaves. They must never be allowed to suffer for want of water, nor should they be starved in small pots. The growth had better not be hurried at any stage; the plants will then develop into shapely specimens with very little care. ”

“ In the first place, the sun warms the ground in which the seed lies buried. Then the seed swells and bursts, and sends downward a little root; the root drinks in the water from the soil, and so gets larger, and spreads around; and by-and-by it sends up a stem above the ground. As soon as the sunlight falls on the little plant, it gets stronger, and is able to take food as well as drink from the soil, so as to get its full shape and size and green color. ”

“ Will, in this month, show a profusion of flowers; and, where there is a variety, they have truly a magnificent appearance. From a good selection, endless varieties, by seed, of exquisite beauty, might be obtained by attention to the following rule. The best to select for bearing seed are Single white, Atoniana, Grandiflora, Waratah, Carnation Waratah, Fulgens, and, in many instances, the pistil, or pistillum of Variegata, Pompone, Pæoniflora, and Intermedia, are perfect, with several others. ”

“ To make our collection complete there should be seedlings of the other great division of plants, namely, those with only one seed-leaf, such as palms, cannas, bulbs, grasses, &c. A few date-stones kept in moist earth, and placed where they will have a slight degree of regular heat, will supply one of these specimens, and Canna seed, Indian corn, and other plants of the kind, grown in the same way, will supply other examples. ”

“ Except in the respects mentioned, these methods of propagation are not notably superior to propagation by means of good seed, which, by the way, is not overabundant. By the consumption of a little extra time, any desired number of plants may be obtained from seed. At any rate, seed is what one must start with in nearly every case. ”

“ Some seeds will die if left to lie all winter in the ground. We say such seeds are not hardy. They are seeds that are not native to the place where they grow. Seeds are hardy in their native places.
Now you have seen how the seed germ grows to be a ripe seed. You have seen how the ripe seed sprouts into a plant. You know that plants grow. They increase in size. They put out more leaves. They have flowers and seeds. ”