29 
of saccharine’ matter which forms the basis of the pro- 
cess of malting. 
In taking a spring walk, you will find considerable 
pleasure in marking the various appearance which the 
first, or seminal leaves of plants present. They are 
always, as I have said, different from the others, on which 
account Grew called them dissimilar leaves, and we may 
here observe the direction and ramification of the seminal 
root ; for the branching fibres, seen by holding these leaves 
up to the light, are those of the seminal root as they existed 
in the seed-lobe, but are now apparent by their greater de- 
velopment.* 
Among other reflections which may occur to the student 
in these examinations, I would have him to think of the 
mutual connexion which exists between the different parts 
_ of nature, and the dependance which all living beings, 
whether animal or vegetable, have upon circumstances ex- 
ternal to themselves. Without water, neither animal nor 
plant could exist ; light is almost as necessary ; heat also ; 
and, perhaps, electricity ; and it may be several unknown 
influences or elements, as yet too subtle for our researches 
to detect, while air is more immediately necessary for both 
animal and vegetable life than food itself. 
And here we see, how to destroy the seminal leaves is equi- 
valent to destroying the whole plant—they are its organs of 
breathing, its lungs, and, when their function is cut off, the 
plant dies, as much from want of air as an animal does when 
itis drowned, or otherwise dies by suffocation. 
And why is this air so necessary to animal and vegetable 
life? No onecan tell; we merely know the fact, that itis so, and 
* See Grew’s Anatomy of Plants, page 10, last paragraph. 
D 
