106 SEEDS AND THEIR GERMINATION. 



chemioally assimilate — which in its earliest stages is mostly water — then 

 beg ; ns the process of germination or vegetable growth, which consists of 

 a constant aggregation of matter and concentration of energy. From 

 this point of view it would seem that germination must be most vigorous, 

 if the necessary conditions are supplied soon after the seed becomes 

 truly ripe, which, in a general way, accords with actual experience, 

 although the moment of true ripeness cannot be accurately ascertained. 



The aggregation of matter brings under the concentric influence of 

 the organic wave a stream of molecules having diverse characters and 

 capacities, which combine in the most complex manner, but always with 

 a tendency to sort themselves according to certain definite affinities, 

 rhythmic as well as chemical. The original wave generated by the 

 conversion of the atomic energy in the seed is simple, and its field of 

 action small ; but, as growth proceeds, the original wave, still main- 

 taining its primary influence, becomes complicated with secondary 

 waves, and these with others, in receding ranks. Every branch of the 

 main stem expresses the divergence of a subsidiary wave, as does also 

 every twig, and every leaf, and every hair, while all are controlled by the 

 general direction and character of the primary. 



In every wave of every rank the same process is carried on, the 

 aggregation of matter, the concentration of energy, and the sorting of 

 molecules according to their rhythmic affinities. The process only 

 terminites when the maximum concentration of molecular energy is 

 reached in the blossom. After this comes the inevitable re-action. 

 Growth ceases, heat is radiate 1 instead of being employed, energy is 

 dissipated, and the plant dies, either entirely when that organic wave is 

 broken up altogether, or partially when it passes into a season of rest or 

 leaves behind it seeds in which some of the molecular motion instead of 

 being communicated to the ether has passed into atomic motion and so 

 become insensible. 



The production of seed is not an essential part of the life-history of 

 any individual plant, nor is it of any benefit to the individual. The 

 climax of the organic wave is reached in the blossom not in the seed, 

 which is the anti-climax; and if the blossom should be unfruitful either 

 from failure of fertilisation or from being double, so that no reproductive 

 organs are produced, the life of that individual plant is in no way less 

 perfect or complete. It is to the species that the seed is valuable. If a 

 plant leaves seeds behind it a specific wave is generat jd which has most 

 of the characters of the individual wave on an extended scale. The 

 succession of generations is to the species what the succession of annual 

 seasons is to the perennial plant. The vital energy of an individual 

 perennial plant increases from yeir to year up to a certain limit. That 

 limit mn,y be contracted or enlarged by adverse or propitious seasons to 

 some extent but not very far. On the average a tree of any parbicular 

 species will live a certain number of years and no longer. It reaches at 

 last a year of maximum energy, and from that point it declines. Its 

 vigour wanes, the dissipation of energy is more rapid than the supply, 



