EXPERIMENTS IN SEEDS. 929 
in which it ought to be for the wants of the 
plant; for both the gluten and the starch are 
the stores of food which are providentially de- 
posited in the seed, and which nourish the 
young plant until it is able to obtain food for 
itself. Both these remarkable changes of inso- 
luble into soluble substances, so beautifully con- 
trived to meet the necessities of the infant plant, 
are begun by absorbing water from the soil, and 
oxygen gas from the air. Therefore, if we at- 
tempted to make a seed grow without giving it 
water and air, we should certainly not succeed. 
Some remarkable experiments upon growing 
seeds have been made with several interesting 
results. Seeds have been placed in the receiver 
of an air-pump, and by pumping out all the air 
a vacuum has been obtained; but, although mois- 
ture and warmth were supplied to the seeds, they 
refused to shew the least inclination to ger- 
minate. They have also been put into glass- 
vessels, full of some other gas than pure atmo- 
spheric air, such as the gas which is in soda 
and other effervescent waters—carbonic acid; 
and the gas with which balloons used to be 
filled on account of its lightness—hydrogen. The 
