25 
after they have sent the nutritive streams concocted in their 
vessels to the rootlet, remain in the ground, and as the 
plant increases, they disappear. But the lupin is very dif- 
ferent, since the seed-lobes in it, instead of thus remaining 
in the soil, rise above it, and are changed into green leaves. 
There is no death of the seed here, then, but there is a 
change ; and though there is as little death in the bean, 
that is not altogether so evident as it is here. 
In a large proportion of seeds, the seed-lobes are evolved 
into leaves, which rise above the surface of the ground, and 
are, as I have already stated, called seminal leaves. I be- 
lieve we owe their discovery to the illustrious Grew. They 
are always of a shape different from that of the other leaves 
of the plant; and until the latter has gained strength 
enough to be nourished by the root, and to breathe air 
by its proper leaves, they are just as necessary to its exis- 
tence and development, as the seed-lobes are to the bean 
and other species which do not assume the change into 
green leaves. The farmer often experiences an important 
and serious proof of this, in the loss of his turnip crop, from 
this seminal or first pair of leaves being devoured by in- 
sects. 
In a small work which I lately published, I have dwelt, 
in a number of instances, on the perfection with which the 
designs of the Deity are accomplished ; and with the same 
view let me ask, whether, so far as we have now gone with 
the germination of a seed, every thing is provided for that 
the case requires? The seed-lobes prepare the proper nu- 
triment; the rootlet expands, and the plumule is next de- 
veloped into the growing plant; but still something more is 
necessary to the perfection of the process, and that is, that 
the rootlet should have an uncontrollable propensity to 
penetrate into the earth, and the plumule an equally strong 
