8 GERMINATION 



there is a complete suspension of chemical changes charac- 

 teristic of the living state." 



That is an explanation but not I think, the true explana- 

 tion. Dr. Waller goes on to say that by means of an electrical 

 test he can tell whether a seed is alive or dead. I am sorry 

 to be at issue with him, but he is mistaken. No electrical 

 test will show anything of the sort. Reference to the 

 Chapter upon " The Structure of the Seed " will make this 

 clear. Nothing short of a microscopical examination 

 showing degeneration — equivalent to putrefaction in the 

 animal body — can determine the question of life or death 

 in a dry seed, although its electrical fitness, or otherwise, 

 could be determined by moistening the seed coat, charging 

 it by means of continuous current for a few seconds and 

 then discharging it through the galvanometer. But the 

 fact that it gave a sensible deflection would no more prove 

 it to be alive than it would show a Ley den jar or a condenser 

 to be alive. And I say that the seed is not in a state of 

 latent but of potential life. 



Let us consider the matter from a common sense point 

 of view. 



The animal foetus is constructed to commence an indepen- 

 dent existence the moment the umbilical cord is severed. 

 Unless it then inspires oxygen and generates force to call 

 its body functions into instant operation it dies, for it has had 

 no life of its own but only the life of the mother. Not so, 

 however, with the seed. Just before the animal draws its 

 first breath and when the grown seed falls from the parent 

 plant both are structurally perfect, but what the first 

 breath is to the animal so is the natural environment of 

 soil and warmth and moisture to the seed, and it is obviously 

 not intended that it should perish if that environment was 

 not immediately forthcoming. The seed, in my belief, is 

 just a piece of apparatus to which life can be imparted 

 when the conditions essential to its completion are compHed 

 with, and not before. 



It is almost as if we were considering it as the recording 

 instrument in a telegraphic circuit. Everything is in order, 

 the battery, the ke^^s, the condensers, the line wire, the 



