t» AKIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS, Sip 



germ, but would not be enough for its farther 

 developement. So fmall an atmofphere mufi: 

 foon be furcharged with vapours and exhalations 

 injurious to the young plants. Every thing that 

 vegetates requires renewal of the circumambient 

 air from time to time. The want of it is more fen- 

 fibly felt by vegetables of the higher clafles than, 

 by thofe of the lowefl. Thefe, I Ihould conceive, 

 would vegetate better in veflels hermetically feal- 

 ed than legumes, and more efpecially ligneous 

 plants. The higher a vegetable ftands in the 

 fcale of organization, and the more complicated 

 its life, it depends on a greater number of condi- 

 tions, and conditions more diver fified. 



VIII. From your firfl experiments on feeds expof- 

 ed to the a£lion of boiling water in veflels hermeti- 

 cally fealed, it follows, that two minutes boiling 

 does not prevent germination ; but it is otherwife 

 where they have been expofed two minutes and 

 a half. It is very remarkable that the difference 

 of half a minute fhould prevent germination : and 

 this fad tends to prove how much the duratioii 

 of an experiment aifefts the animal oeconomy. 



In this refpeft, you have not obferved any dif- 

 ference between feeds in open vefTels and thofe 

 hermetically fealed : Neither of them exhibited 

 any fign of germination when boiling was protrac- 

 ted above two minutes ; which fhould have happen- 

 ed after you had afcertained that feeds germinate in 



vefTels 



