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SEED-PLANTS

1718

SEINE

getting away from the parent plant and getting a foothold in soil not already exhausted of those elements needed by that particular species. These bodies may be carried by the wind by being light or by having sail-like or feathery appendages on the seed, as the milkweed and catalpa, or en the seed-vessel, as the maple and dandelion. Spines or hooks, usually a part of the seed-vessel, fasten to birds or other passing animals, as is done by the burdock and stick-tights. Indigestible seeds of edible fruits are carried by birds. Seeds are carried by mud clinging to the feet of water-birds. For other methods of spreading than by seeds, usually considered in this connection, see PROPAGATION. Consult Beal's Seed-Dispersal.

Seed=Plants. The common name of Sper-matophytes (q, v.).

Seeds. In general a seed is a transformed ovule, and an ovule is an megasporangium (q. v.). The transformation is connected with the process of fertilization. The most apparent effect is the development of the hard coat or testa, which has to do with the protection of the delicate structures within. This testa is usually formed in connection with the integument of the ovule. Within the seed-coat the essential thing is the embryo (q. v.). Around the embryo may be deposited more or less endosperm (q. v.), and outside of the endosperm, in some seeds, is the perisperm (q.v.). A seed is well-devised for carrying a plant through an unfavorable season of drought or cold. The length of time a seed may retain its vitality and be made to germinate is known only in the most general way. The old story of the germination of wheat derived from mummies in Egypt was contradicted almost as soon as it was started, but the contradiction has never yet overtaken the original statement. That seeds may endure for several, often for many, years and then be made to germinate is well-attested, but the data are very uncertain. Seeds must be carried out of reach of rivalry with the parent-plant and with each other. Various agencies have been used to effect this dispersal: (i) Currents of air. The wind transports numerous seeds, which have been prepared for this agency in a variety of ways. Some have tufts of hair, others plumes, others wings. Often it is the. fruit rather than the seed which bears the tuft of hairs (as thistle) or the wings (as maple), but the result is the same. (2) Currents of water. Many seeds .may be carried long distances by water and still be able to germinate. The banks and flood-plains of streams constantly receive seeds from the regions toward the headwaters, and the more extensive the area drained by a stream the more varied is the collection of seeds on its flood-plain. The oceanic currents probably carry seeds the greatest distances,

transporting them from continents to islandst even from continent to continent. By experiment Darwin found that numerous seeds could be soaked in sea-water long enough to be carried over 1,000 miles by an oceanic current without losing the power of germination. (3) Animals. Many seeds and fruits develop grappling appendages of various kinds, by means of which they adhere to animals brushing past, as the tickseed, Spanish needle etc. Migrating birds, especially those which visit marshy shores, are great carriers of seeds which are imbedded in the mud adhering to their feet. Fruit-eating birds also transport seeds, which may pass through the alimentary tract without losing the power of germination. (4) Explosive fruits. In some cases fruits have the power of forcibly discharging their seeds, as the violet, witch-hazel, touch-me-not etc. This method is interesting, but not so effective as the others, since the distance traversed is necessarily very limited.

JOHN M. COULTER.

Seeley (sefU}y John Robert, an English historian born in 1834, who died in 1895, was the author of notable books, historical and religious He held a professorship at University College, London, and in 1869 was appointed professor of modern history at the University of Cambridge. His writings embrace a Short History of Napoleon /, Lectures and Essays, Life and Times of Stein, The Expansion of England, Natural Religion and Ecce Homo. This, his most celebrated book, studied the life and character of Jesus as a human being.

SeidJ (zi'dl), Anton H., an Austrian musical conductor, was born at Buda-Pest, Hungary, May 7, 1850, and died at New York, March 28, 1898. After studying at Leipsic under Richter and at Baireuth under Wagner, he became conductor of Leipsic Opera-House, and in 1882 made a tour of Europe as conductor of Neumann's Nibelungen troupe. In 1883 he was appointed conductor of the opera-house at Bremen, and two years later came to the United States, where he was received with favor in New York and other cities, as leader of German operas and as successor to Theodore Thomas in conducting the concerts of the New York Philharmonic Society. He was the notable exponent, for many years, in this country, of Wagner's music,

Seine (sdn), one of the four chief rivers of France, rises northwest of Dijon and flows northwestward, with many windings, past Fontainebleau, Melun, Paris, St Denis, St. Germain and Rouen for 482 miles, falling into the English Channel at an inlet where stand the ports of Harfleur and Havre. It is navigable 350 miles from its mouth, or to Marcilly, and the improvement of the upper Sein'e as a canal is one of the schemes proposed to join Paris to the Atlantic. Its