Vegetative growth

“ Sterility from the excessive development of the Organs of Growth or Vegetation.—Plants which from any cause grow too luxuriantly, and produce leaves, stems, runners, suckers, tubers, bulbs, &c., in excess, sometimes do not flower, or if they flower do not yield seed. To make European vegetables under the hot climate of India yield seed, it is necessary to check their growth; and, when one-third grown, they are taken up, and their stems and tap-roots are cut or mutilated. ”

“ To increase the Growth in Trees.—It may be depended upon as a fact, that by occasionally washing the stems of trees, their growth will be greatly increased; for several recent experiments have proved, that all the ingredients of vegetation united, which are received from the roots, stem, branches, and leaves of a mossy and dirty tree, do not produce half the increase either in wood or fruit, that another gains whose stem is clean. It is clearly obvious, that proper nourishment cannot be received from rain, for the dirty stem will retain the moisture longer than when clean ”

“ When, however, plants are expenders, namely, during their germination and first stages of growth, their degrees of growth are determined by their amounts of vital capital. It is because the young tree commences life with a ready-formed embryo and store of food sufficient to last for some time, that it is enabled to strike root and lift its head above the surrounding herbage. ”

“ This plant is the first that vegetates on naked rocks, covering them with a kind of tapestry, and draws its nourishment perhaps chiefly from the air; after it perishes, earth enough is left for other mosses to root themselves; and after some ages a soil is produced sufficient for the growth of more succulent and large vegetables. In this manner perhaps the whole earth has been gradually covered with vegetation, after it was raised out of the primeval ocean by subterraneous fires. ”

“ The shapes of plants will depend on the character [161] of the seed, while the flower and fruit is dependent on the water and nutritive material. In all animals the first process of maturation and concoction of the nutritive liquids [162] takes place within the animal; there is no exception to this rule. But in plants the first concoction and maturation takes place in [163] the nutritive material. Every tree continues to grow up, until its growth is completed and it dies. ”

“ So in the case of the grasses in question, I presume the herb being in the first instance starved, by a failure of the nutrimental fluids hitherto conveyed by the water of the soil, its growth would be checked, and when checked the same growth could not, as we know by observation on vegetation in general, be instantaneously renewed. ”

“ In other words, the plant physiologist defines rest in living plants as that period in which their buds will not open and grow even though the temperature, moisture, and other external environmental conditions are highly suitable for growth. ”

“ I always think my latest try at writing a near-perfect garden book is quite a bit better than the last. Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, recommended somewhat wider spacings on raised beds than I did in 1980 because I'd repeatedly noticed that once a leaf canopy forms, plant growth slows markedly. ”

“ In planting, a little extra care in the disposition of the roots in the soil will be well repaid, for plants merely thrust into the ground cannot develop that robust root growth on which the future of the crop largely depends. ”

“ This prevents the damping off of the seedlings, to which they are very liable when treated otherwise; it also greatly facilitates their growth and the formation of roots, the soil being so perfectly open that it is readily affected by the atmosphere, and thus kept in the most favourable condition for promoting vegetation. ”

“ The reproduction of the higher plants takes place either asexually by the formation of buds or organs answering thereto, or sexually by the production of an embryo plant within the seed. The conditions requisite for the growth, development and reproduction of plants are, in general terms, exposure, at the proper time, to suitable amounts of light, heat and moisture, and a due supply of appropriate food. ”

“ When nature has provided a soil, her next care is to perfect the growth of her seeds and then to disperse them. This is effected by the structure and arrangement of the seed varying according to the nature of its particular habitat. When the seed, or mature ovule, is ripe, it bursts the capsule in which it is contained and falls to the ground, or is scattered by the wind. ”

“ As the tree advances in growth, and approaches toward its natural period of maturity, it is supposed that there is an accumulation of nutritive matter within it, and at the same time the roots will have exhausted the soil, to some extent, of the elements that contributed to the production of wood-growth, and the result is the formation of flower-buds. Now it becomes a nice matter to preserve the proper balance between these two systems of growth, the wood producing and the fruit forming. ”

“ In principle I would carry out the first system, and give each plant space in which to grow upon its own root as large as it naturally would in a light soil, and I would have a sufficient number of plants to supply the deficiency in growth. On good, loamy soil, the foliage of single lines of plants, three feet apart, will grow so large as to touch across the spaces; but this could scarcely be expected on light soil unless irrigation were combined with great fertility. Nevertheless, a bed with plants standing not too thickly upon it will give an abundance of superb fruit. ”

“ The deviations from the ordinary direction of organs partake for the most part more of the nature of variations than of absolute malposition or displacement. It must also be borne in mind how frequently the direction of the leaves, or of the flower, varies according to the [Pg 202] stage of development which it has arrived at, to unequal or disproportionate growth of some parts, or to the presence of some impediment either accidental or resulting from the natural growth of the plant. These and other causes tend to alter the direction of parts very materially. ”

“ In all these circumstances, therefore, there exist the most advantageous conditions for the rapid and continuous growth of vegetation, and, judging from the fossils thereof, it must have gone on with a density and luxuriance that wellnigh surpasses conception. Floating vegetables first made their appearance, spreading their branches and leaves on the surface of the water, and filling the basin or lagoon with their débris thus forming a support for the more aërial vegetation, compared with which anything in our day of the same species, in respect to size and quantity, fades into insignificance. ”

“ Herbaceous and deciduous plants will seldom need water. Perhaps, from the throwing of the foliage, to the commencement of vegetation, three or four times will be sufficient. Particular attention should be paid to the state of health and of growth, in which the plants respectively are, in the application of water ”

“ The arum, like the grain of wheat, has only a single seed-leaf; whereas the pea, as we all know, has two. This is the most fundamental difference among flowering plants, as it points back to an early and deep-seated mode of growth, about which they must have split off from one another millions of years ago. All the one-lobed plants grow with stems like grasses or bamboos, formed by single leaves enclosing another; all the double-lobed plants grow with stems like an oak, formed of concentric layers from within outward. ”

“ I have found the admixture of a little fine bone meal with the soil to be strong aid to vigorous growth. The young runners are then so guided and held down by a small stone or lump of earth that they will take root in the pots, indeed, quite large plants, if still attached to thrifty runners, may be taken up, their roots shortened to one-quarter of an inch, and these inserted in the little pots, which will be speedily filled with a new growth of roots. It is very important that abundant and continuous moisture should be maintained. ”

“ As the kernel swells with heat and moisture, its starches and albumens get oxidised and produce the motions and rearrangements of particles that result in the growth of a new plant. First a little head rises towards the sunlight and a little root pushes downward towards the moist soil beneath. The business of the root is to collect water for the circulating medium—the sap or blood of the plant—as well as a few mineral matters required for its stem and cells ”

“ Notes are taken at frequent intervals during the season of growth, the appearance of the plants noted, their relative luxuriance observed, and their comparative tendency to produce flower or stem and leaf, the abundance of flowers, etc., etc. Root-growth is studied, and also the character of the soil in the various plots, and the way in which its texture and its capacity for holding or transmitting water are modified according to the manure applied. When the crop is cut from each plot, its weight is estimated, and also the amount of dry produce. ”

“ The consideration of the physical circumstances necessary to germination and vegetable growth, brings us acquainted with many remarkable facts. At a temperature below the freezing point, seeds will not germinate; at the boiling point of water, a chemical change is produced in the grain, and its power of germinating is destroyed. Heat, therefore, is necessary to the development of the embryo, but its power must only be exerted within certain prescribed limits: these limits are only constant for the same class of seeds, they vary with almost every plant. ”

“ Many of the plants die every year, and prepare at the bottom a soil fit for the growth of a higher order of vegetation, Phragmites, Acorus, Sparganium, Rumex, Lythrum, Pedicularis, Spiraea, Polystichum, Comarum, Caltha, etc., etc. In the course of twenty or thirty years the muddy bottom is filled with roots of aquatic and marsh plants, which are lighter than water, and if the depth is great enough to give room for detaching this vegetable network, a couple of yard for example, it rises to the surface, bearing with it, of course, the soil formed above it by decay of stems and leaves. ”

“ Young trees, on the contrary, in which the vigor of wood-growth remains in full activity, very often produce fruit-buds and blossoms, but do not perfect their fruit, which either fails to set, from some imperfection of the organs of reproduction, or falls prematurely, in consequence of the wood system absorbing the nutriment, or failing to prepare the proper juices for their support. ”

“ Soil, Propagation, and Culture.—Lovage requires a deep, rich, moist soil; and is propagated either by seeds or dividing: the roots. The seeds should be sown in August, or immediately after ripening; as, when sown in spring, they seldom vegetate well. When the young plants have made a growth of two or three inches, they should be transplanted three feet apart in each direction; and, when well established, will require little care, and continue for many years. ”

“ He notes the germination of the plant seed and its early growth, step by step approaching a stage of maturity; it blossoms, produces seed, and if it is an annual plant, withers and dies. If it is a perennial plant its leaves only, wither and die at the approach of winter, the plant passing into a resting stage from which it awakes the following spring to repeat again its annual cycle. ”

“ These plants, or the greater part of them, have a peculiar growth, particularly adapted to these regions, and fit for forming soil and mould on barren rocks. In proportion as they grow up, they spread into various stems and branches, which lie as close together as possible; they spread new seeds, and at last a large spot is covered; the lowermost fibres, roots, stalks, and leaves, gradually decay and push forth on the top new verdant leaves: The decaying lower parts form a kind of peat, or turf, which gradually changes into mould and soil. ”

“ If we have a tree growing on a hillside in a soil that easily transmits moisture and it gives that tree constantly a stream of pure water going through its root system, and there happens to be enough fertility in that vicinity, that moisture is impregnated with plant food, and the tree will get all it wants. ”

“ The tremendous energy of growth covers bark and branches with creeping plants innumerable, with a profusion of moss, liverworts, and ferns such as we cannot imagine from our own experiences in this country. So the roots of our orchid find on the branches rich leaf-mould, 332 and it lives happily and contentedly on the salts and moisture accumulated by the mosses and other plants. ”

“ But if, in lieu of either plan, we follow the original design of Nature by covering the seed with moist earth, the chemical changes which take place within it, still resulting in heat and motion, produce that special form of movement which we know as germination. New cells form themselves about the feathery head, a little sprout pushes timidly its way through the surrounding soil, and soon a pair of rounded leaves or a spike of pointed blades may be seen spreading a mass of delicate green toward the open sunlight overhead. ”

“ Just as that small portion of nourishing matter which is deposited in the seed feeds the embryo when it germinates, so the much larger portion deposited in the tuber nourishes its buds, or eyes, when they likewise grow, the next spring, into new plants. And the great supply enables them to shoot with a greater vigor at the beginning, and to produce a greater amount of vegetation than the seedling plant could do in the same space of time ”