File:A popular California flora, or, Manual of botany for beginners. Containing descriptions of flowering plants growing in central California, and westward to the ocean. With illustrated introductory (14598373407).jpg

Identifier: popularcalifornia00ratt (find matches)
Title: A popular California flora, or, Manual of botany for beginners. Containing descriptions of flowering plants growing in central California, and westward to the ocean. With illustrated introductory lessons, especially adapted to the Pacific coast
Year: 1883 (1880s)
Authors: Rattan, Volney, 1840-1915
Subjects: Plants -- California
Publisher: San Francisco, A.L. Bancroft
Contributing Library: The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden
Digitizing Sponsor: The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden

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he united petioles,or stems, of the thick cotyledons,and only tipped by the radicle^penetrates the ground to a depth,usually, of four or five inches. Theplumule meanwhile, as shown in f,remains dormant in the bottom ofthe tubular sprout. When the pe-tiole growth ceases, the radicle growsrapidly by absorbing the nourish-ment stored in the cotyledons, andbecomes a tuber. Meanwhile theplumule begius its upward growth,splitting the petioles apart, and usu-ally escaping from between them, asshown in the figure below c. In thiswonderful way the plumule bud isdeeply planted together with nour-ishment (stored in the radicle) which,if necessary, can be used to aid itsfirst growth. The reason for this curious behavior is obvious, when wekaow that ground squirrels are fond of these seeds, and that a severefrost will kill the young plant. If the seeds wait till warm w^eather tosprout, hungry rodents may find them; if they germinate early, and inthe manner of other seeds. Jack Frost may nip them.^
Text Appearing After Image:
* Dr. Asa Gray, who first experimented with these seeds, found them to grow as represented at a, inthe figure (reduced one fourth from Fig. 43, Botanical Text-book, edition of 1879). Evidently onaccouLt of some obstruction, probably the bottom of a small pot, the seeds were elevated two or threeinches above the surface of the soil (ihe dotted line S represents the surface of the ground for figuresa, ft, and c). My experiments with seeds planted in shallow boxes gave very different results—shownat h, which is a reduced copy of Fig. 14 of second edition. The plants came ilp about four inches fromwhere the seeds were planted, the plumule being pushed laterally that distance by the clongati-n of thecotyledon petioles. Such inexplicable behavior stimulated to further observation, which resulted inthe discovery that naturally planted seeds, unhampered by boxes cr pots, usually grow as representedat c and d. In one instance a sprout measured seven inches irom the plumule to thecotyledonp!

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