Agricultural botany, theoretical and practical / by John Percival.

  • John Percival
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Agricultural botany, theoretical and practical / by John Percival. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/816 page 7
    CHAPTER II. iSEEDS: THEIR STRUCTURE AND GERMINATION. ii. It is well known that one of the most ordinary methods of rraising plants is to sow what are called seeds, yet how few there jare among the many who use them who fully appreciate their rreal nature and capabilities. This want of knowledge is not due perhaps so much to want of interest in them, as to the fact that for their proper management they are usually buried away in the ^ground, and are therefore unseen ; moreover, many of them are so small that their structure is difficult to observe with the naked eye. In order to understand the true nature of a seed it is neces- sary to examine its origin and construction, and watch its development as far as possible from the earliest stages to the time when it gives rise to a completely formed young plant. The Common Bean.—A broad bean is one of the largest seeds met with in ordinary farm or garden practice, and as its parts are all sufficiently large to be observed without the special aid of anything more than •an ordinary pocket lens, it is especially fitted for study. When a nearly ripe pod of a broad bean plant is opened, each seed within it is found attached to the inside by means of , r ig. i.—Piece of bean pod showing the funicle (/) a short Stalk or funicle and its attached seed. (Fig- l)> it is through this stalk that all the nourishment
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