ATURE hath secured the Propagation of Plants several ways, but chiefly by the Seed: for the Production of which, the Root, Leaves, Flower, and Fruit, do all officiate, as hath been shewed. And according as the Plant, or the Seed it bears, is more liable to be destroyed, Provision is made for Propagation, either by a greater number of Seeds, or other ways. So the Seeds of Strawberry, being gathered, or eaten by Vermin, with the Fruit; the Plant is therefore easily propagated by Trunk-Roots. So Poppy, being an annual Plant, is highly prolifick: for instance, the White Poppy; which commonly bears about four mature Heads, in each of which, there are at least ten Partitions, on both sides whereof, the Seeds grow; and upon ¼ᵗʰ part of one side, about 100 Seeds; that is, 800 on one Partition: which being multiplied by 10 (the number of Partitions) makes 8000; and 8000 again by 4 (the number of Heads) makes 32000 Seeds, the yearly product of that Plant.
2. §. So in Typha major, the Seeds being blow’n off and sow’n (as the Eggs of many Fishes spawn’d) with great hazard, they are strangely numerous. For as they stand altogether upon the Spike, they make a Cylinder at least six Inches long, and near ⅝ᵗʰˢ of an Inch in Diametre, or an Inch and ¾ about. Now 9 of these Seeds, set side to side, as they stand on the Spike, make but ⅛ᵗʰ of an Inch; so that 72 make a line of an Inch in Length. But because upon the Spike, the Hairs belonging to the Seeds come between them; we will abate 10, and count but 62. To which ¾ᵗʰˢ of 62, that is (without the Fraction) 46 being added, makes 108 for the Circuit of the Cylinder. And the Cylinder being six Inches long, there are six times 62, that is, 372, for a Line the length of the Cylinder. Which number being multiplied by 108, produceth 40176 the number of Seeds which stand upon one Stalk; and so, upon three Stalks, which one Plant commonly bears, there are in one year, above a hundred and twenty Thousand Seeds.
3. §. SO SOON as the Seed is ripe, Nature taketh several Methods for its being duly sow’n: not only in the opening of the Uterus, as in some Instances[69] hath already been seen; but also in the make of the Seed it self. For First, the Seeds of many Plants, which affect a peculiar Soil or Seat, as of Arum, Poppy, &c. are heavy and small enough, without further care, to fall directly down into the Ground: and so to grow in the same place where themselves had their Birth.
[69]
P. 3. Ch. 5.
Tab. 70, & 71.
4. §. But if they are so large and light, as to be exposed to the wind, they are often furnished with one or more Hooks; To stay them from straying over far from their proper place, till by the fall of Leavs or otherwise, they are safely lodged. So the Seeds of Avens have one single Hook, those of Agrimony and Goose-grass, many; Tab. 72. both the former, loving a Bank for warmth, the latter, a Hedge for its support.
5. §. On the contrary, many Seeds are furnished with Wings or Feathers. Partly, with the help of the Wind to carry them, when they are ripe, from off the Plant, as those of Ash, Maple, Orach, &c. lest staying thereon too long, they should either be corrupted, or miss their season. And partly, to enable them to make their flight, more or less, abroad: that so they may not, by falling together, come up too thick; and that if one should miss a good Soyl or Bed, another may hit. So the Kernels of Pine have wings not unlike to those of some Insects; yet very short, in respect of the weight of the Seed; Tab. 72. whereby they flye not in the Aer, but like domestick Fowls, only flutter upon the Ground. But those of Typha, Dandelion and most of the Pappous kind, with many more, have very long and numerous Feathers, by which they are wafted every way, and to any distance necessary for the aforesaid purposes.
6. §. Again, there are some Seeds, which are scattered not by flying abroad, but by being either Spurted, or Slung away. The first are those of Woodsorrel; which having a running Root, Nature sees it fit to sow the Seeds at some distance. The doing of which is effected by a white thick and sturdy Cover of a Tendinous or Springy Nature, in which the Seed lies within the Case. Tab. 72. This Cover, so soon as it begins to drye, bursts open on one side, in an instant, and is violently turned inside outward, as you would turn the Gizard of a Fowl; and so smartly throws off the Seed.
7. §. The Seeds of Harts-tongue, and of all that Tribe, are Slung or Shot away. The doing of which is performed by the curious contrivance of the Seed-Case; as in Codded Arsmart, and some other like Plants. Only there, the Spring moves and curles up inward; but here it moves outward. I shall describe it, as well as the Weather (which when I observed it was cloudy) would permit. Every Seed-Case, as it appears through a good Glass, Tab. 72. stands upon a Pedicle from ½ an Inch to an Inch or more in Length; at the bottom about as thick again as a Horse-hair, and a little thicker at the Top, on which stands the Case, of a Silver Colour; about the bigness of a Cherry-Stone, of a Spherick Figure, and girded about with a sturdy Tendon or Spring, of the Colour of Gold: the whole Machine looking not much unlike a little Padlock. The Surface of the Spring resembles a fine Screw, or some of the Aer-Vessels in the Wood of a Plant. So soon as by the Innate Aer of the Plant, or otherwise, this Spring is become stark enough, it suddenly breaks the Case into two halfs, like two little Cups, and so slings the Seed.
8. §. These Cases grow in oblique Furrows or Trenches on the back side the Leaf, from ¼ of an Inch to an Inch in Length, and about ⅛ᵗʰ of an Inch broad. Tab. 72. In one of these Trenches an Inch long are more than 300 of the Cases above described; and allowing but 10 Seeds to every Case, above 3000 Seeds. Which being multiplied by the number of Furrows in one Leaf, with allowance for the lesser Furrows; and that summ by the number of Leaves commonly growing upon one Root, comes to above Ten Hundred Thousand Seeds, the annual product of this Plant. The Seed is of a Tawny Colour, through a good Glass about 1/12ᵗʰ of an Inch long, flat, and somewhat oval. Of these, ten Thousand are not so big as a white Pepper Corn.