.' 320 Experiments and Obfervations 
being confined five days, with one ounce of fteeped 
barley. Now if the imperfections of my apparatus 
. do not lead meinto error, it is plain that feeds, in 
the a&t of vegetation, take Oxygene from the at- 
mofphere, part of which they retain, and reject the “ 
reft charged with Carbone. The fubftances of the 
feed-lobes is hereby changed, an additional quan- 
tity of Oxygene being introduced into their compo- 
' fition; and a part of their Carbone loft.” This 
. ., change, in the proportion of their elementary princi- 
: ples, generates fugar, as is evident from the procefs 
‘of malting. But Sugar and Carbonic Acid are more 
foluble in water, than the farinaceous Oxyd. They 
_ therefore combine with the humidity in the capilla- 
ry tubes of the feed, and find a ready paffage to 
the Germ, the vegetative principle of which they 
call into a&tion by a flimulus fuited to its nature. A 
nutritious liquor being thus prepared, by the de- 
compofition of the feed-lobes, and diftributed through 
the infant plant, its organs-begin to exert their fpe- 
cific actions, by decompounding the. nourifhment 
conveyed to them, and forming new Oxyds from 
the elementary principles of it, for the increafe of 
the veffels and fibres; and in this manner the firft 
ftage of vegetation commences. One principal ufe 
of the feed lobes being afcertained, we are enabled 
to underftand fome experiments. made by Malpig- 
hi. This indufirions philofopher ftripped the 
germs of a great number of beans, and a variety 
of other feeds, of their external ‘coverings, and 
placed 
