on the Vegetation of Seeds. 505 
pended. Lrcur is therefore the chief exciting 
power, in adult vegetables, which gives activity 
to their different organs; and hence greennefs, 
which indicates a plant to be in a healthy ftate, 
arifes from its juices being properly affimilated ; 
to which the influence of the folar rays contri- 
butes, by giving its veffels their neceffary tone. 
Thus the different fecretions required in its 
ceconomy are elaborated ; its fibres receive their 
juft texture; and-the hue, which Nature has 
diffufed fo univerfally over this part of creation, 
befpeaks its vigor and profperity. But oxygene 
difcharges that function in feeds, which /ight 
difcharges in maturer vegetables; and this tem- 
porary difference, in the nature of the fame 
organized body, isa wife precaution: for, fince 
the germ is intended to expand itfelf in the 
ground, the author of the univerfe has endued 
it with properties fufceptible of neceffary im-. 
preffions, from a caufe that has free accefs to its 
dark retreat. 
With the affiftance of this agent, it performs 
a kind of imperfe& vegetation; which continues 
till the rudiment of the ftem breaks the foil 
_ and comes into day, where it immediately ex- 
periences the influence of the light; which, by 
producing a change in its colour, gives it the 
appearance of a plant. 
Rrr All 
