CHE REFERENCE LIBRARY - Pole Shift Survival Information

CHAPTER
I
SEEDS AND
SHOOTS
THE earth is clothed with plants. ,411 these plants are the
rrsults of propagation.
~+ints perpetuate themselves and increase their numbers
by many means. These means are sexual (by seeds and some
kinds of spores), and asexual (by vegetative parts) l
Seeds are the results of the fertilization of the ovule (strictly
of the egg-nucleus of the ovulej by the germ-nucleus of the
pollen-grain. The ovule, with its integuments and perhaps
with adhering parts, ripens into the seed. Of many forms, sizes
and colors are the seeds of plants. So various are they that
we Gsnalizt~ no seed-form, as we visualize heart-form or roseform,
and many of them are hardly recognizable. Yet they all
have this in common, that they contain a dormant or quiescent
embryo. Thi9 embryo is a rudimentary or minut.e plant.
When the conditions are right for the plantlet to resume its
growth, we Say that the seed germinates.
Sot only does the seed reproduce the parent, but it disperses
the species. In fact, the word disaminute means to sow or
scatter seeds, although we now disseminate knowledge as well
as seeds. Tl- w act of-falling from the receptacle placer; the seed
in a dit-ferent position from that of its parent stock. Often
the seed is carried by wind, being whirled by means of wings,
as in 1mlplu and ash ; floated by means of down or plumes, as
in thistle, dandelion and poplar; driven on the snow and ice
from stalks that stand stifi in the winter. It may be carried
u 1