CHAPTER II. 



GERMINATION. 



The living principle whose character can be traced 

 only in its operations, sometimes remains inactive for 

 years. Such at least is its situation while enclosed in 

 the seed, where it continues inert till aroused by the 

 application of external agents, or wasted by the des- 

 troying agency of time. The former process is term- 

 ed germination, and it is the source of all that variety 

 and beauty, which plants exhibit, to charm the eye and 

 make glad the heart of man. 



Reserving for a future chapter a more minute ac- 

 count of the seed, it will be sufficient at this time to ob- 

 serve, that its coats enclose an embryo or corcle destin- 

 ed to become a living plant, usually lying betwixt two 

 lateral lobes or cotyledons, and frequently accompani- 

 ed by a farinaceous substance denominated the albumen. 

 The latter, which exists abundantly in most kinds of 

 grain, is designed entirely for the sustenance of the 

 young plant, and the lobes, exhibiting more evident 

 traces of organization are chiefly subservient to the 

 same end. In most cases however during germination, 

 they grow out of the earth, assuming the appearance 

 of leaves, but readily distinguished from those of a sub- 

 sequent growth by their peculiar shape, clothing and 

 duration. In others, they remain beneath the surface 

 of the earth, or are elevated on the side of the young 



