£C 
the Developement of the Seminal Germ. 269 
soil, as well as a part equivalent to the plumelet, and capable 
also of being converted into a branch when placed in a proper 
medium. But the earth affords the proper soil to the one, and 
theair the proper medium to the other, the powers of vegetation 
are again exerted, and the inverted plant grows. 
* If it is said that the existence of the germs in question is merely 
a gratuitous assumption without proof, I shall only beg to add, 
that I do not positively insist upon the reality of their existence ; 
but contend that if they should prove to be a non-entity, still 
the power of inverted vegetation must be admitted to be a power 
acquired in the process of the plant's growth, dependent upon the 
principle of propagation by slips and layers, and consequently 
not possessed by the seminal germ ; in the same manner that the 
power of producing its kind is not possessed by the animal at the 
time of its birth, but acquired at an after period. 
October 12, 1813, 
2x2 te XXV. Re- 
