600 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF SOWING SEEDS. 
the very small portion of the tissue, which is 
bound up with the gradual growth of the embryo 
of the seedling plants, the greater part of the 
seedling is a nutritive store, forming no portion 
of the real plant. It merely nurses the nascent 
plant, until it can support itself. The germi- 
native portions are then commonly absorbed; 
and either wither away and fall, or they become 
inactive and inert. Since the germinative parts 
of seedling plants are intended for this special 
purpose, it is evident that they cannot be too full 
and vigorous, as they have to furnish all the 
supplies to the first stage of vegetative growth ; 
and thus lay the very foundations of the future 
structure. 
This physiological fact may be new to the 
practical farmer ; yet, like every fact in nature, 
it is easy of demonstration—inviting the eyes of 
observers everywhere to it, by a variety of 
instances. Waiving all such instances at present, 
but such as are connected with our subject, we 
will briefly follow the seeds sown through the 
stage of their germination. First we observe 
four or five radicals protrude from the base of 
each seed, and elongate downwards into the 
soil. Next, the blade appears bursting through 
