Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-04-09
Principles Of Horticulture.
TX. SEED.

241. The seed is the ovulum arrived at
perfection.
242. 1t consists of an. integument inclos-
ing an embryo, which is the rudiment of a
future plant.
243. The seed is nourished by the same
means as the fruit, and, like it, will be more
or less perfectly formed according TO the
abundance of its nutriment.
244. The plant developed from the en-
bryo in the seed will be in all essential par
ticulars like its parent species.
245. Unless its nature has been changed
by hydridizing.
246. But although it will certainly, uEder
ordinary circumstances, reproduce its spe-
cies, it will by no means uniformly reproduce
the particular variety by which it was
borne.
247. So that seeds are not the proper
means Of propagatiDg varieties.
248. Nevertheless, in annual or biennial
plants no means can be employed for propa-
eating a variety except the seed; and yet
the variety is preserved.
349. This is accomplished solely by the
great care Of the cultivator, and happens
thus:
$50. Although seed will not absolutely
propagate the individual yet as seed will
partake more of the nature of its actual par
ent than of anything else, its progeny may
be expected, as really happens, to resemble
the variety from which it sprang more than
any other variety of its species.
25l. Provided its purity has not been con-
tamnated by the intermixture Of other
varieties.
252. BY careful eradication of all the
varieties from the neighborhood Of that from
which seed is to be saved; by taking care
that none but the most genuine forms OF q
variety are preserved as seed.plants and by
compelling by traDsplantation a plant to ex-
pend all its accumulated sap in the nourish-
ment Of its seed instead Of in the superabun-
dant production of foliage, a crop Of seed
may be procured, the plants produced by
which will, in great measure, have the
peculiar properties Of the parent variety.
253. BY series of progressive seed.sav-
ings upon the same plan, plants will be at
length obtained, in which the habits Of the
individual have become, as it were, fixed,
and capable Of such exact reproduction by
seed as to form an exception to the general
rule, as in Turnips, Radishes, etc.
254. But if the least neglect occurs in tax
ing the necessary precautions to insure a
uniform crop Of seed possessing the new fixed
properties, the race becomes deteriorated in
proportion to the want Of care that has oc-
Cured, and loses its character Of individu.
ality.
255. In all varieties those seeds may be
expected TO preserve their individual character
most distinctly which have been the best nour-
ished it is, consequently, those which should
be selected in preference for raising new
plants from which seed is to be saved.
256. When seed are first opened, their
embryo is a mass of cellular substance, con-
tanning starch, fixed carbon, or other solid
matter, in its cavities, and IN this state it will
remain until fitting circumstances occur to
call it into active life.
257. These fitting circumstances are, q
temperature above 32 deg. Farenheit, q
moist medium, darkness aud exposure to air.
25S. 1t then absorbs the moisture in
which it lies, inhales oxygen, and undergoes
certain chemical changes; its vital powers
cause it to ascend by one extremity for the
purpose of finding light, and of decOmposing
its carbonic acid, by parting with Its accu-
mulated oxygen, aud to descend by the other
extremity for the purpose of finding con-
slant supply OF crude nutriment.
$50. Unless these conditions are main.
tained, seed cannot germinate, and, conse-
quently, an exposure to light is fatal to
their embryo, because oxygen will not be
absorbed in sufficient quantity to stimulate
the vital powers of the embryo into action,
for the purpose of parting with it again,
by the decomposition of the carbonic acid
that has boen formed during Its accumula-
tiou.