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This Feature Characterizes: This feature characterizes many of the legumes, as well as some other forms, and permits their distribution in time instead of space. In addition to the numerous seeds which are dormant in the dry state, there are many which have a prolonged primary dormancy or an induced secondary dormancy in the wet state. The most common example of the latter are weed seeds of various kinds which remain ungerminated and fully viable for years in the soil. Experiment has shown that some seeds fully imbibed with water live for as long as 60 years buried in the soil.
The scientist gains knowledge of these individuals by determining the characteristics that distinguish them, as well as the properties that they share with other individuals. These shared properties define classes, and the classes encompass more individuals as the properties become more general. For example, each man has properties that differentiate him from other men, but all men share in common the property uniquely and essentially characterizes application of this process of abstraction, man is finally placed in the far larger classes of animals and then of living things. In each case the scientist must consider carefully what common property uniquely and essentially characterizes the members of the class.
That's one reason why the feature photography field remains comparatively uncrowded, despite its obvious advantages over spot news coverage. It's easier for the cameraman to come up to the standards of news photography than to those of feature photography. There are many photographers perfectly capable of doing features, and who would like to do them, who never get into the field for the simple reason that they don't ever see the opportunities all around them for feature pictures. They lack the knack, something akin to the "nose for news" mentioned in the previous chapter, to recognize feature picture material. |
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