On the Seed of Plants. 409 



Incredulous pefson. When the last juice is taken inlo the .seed 

 from the atmosphere, then the haiis continiie in the cucumber, 

 which is an unusual case; nor do these hairs die away till the fruit 

 grows of some age. The last figure is a curious kind of bottle 

 ^vith a top, which visibly produces an effect on the liquid; and 

 when the yellow juice is received into the seeds they are about 

 half full, thonp:h sometimes apparently distended, I>ut soon fol- 

 lowed by the powder of the root: in most plants, the hairs then 

 die away before the next process. 



In my last letter I showed in the view of the corculum,how, after 

 mounting the seed, it entered the seed-vessel and seed : I showed 

 it in two very different genera of plants, the wheat and gourd. 

 I have since tried near forty chfferent sorts — every plant I could 

 gain, and they all filled their seeds nearly in the same manner. 

 But in trees (as I have before shown) there is this previous al- 

 teration, owing to the arresting the seed so long in the seed- 

 vessel : — when the corculum runs from the alburnum vessels tliev 

 surround the buds, and for a time become torpid, while the buds 

 change their place, arranging themselves by degrees on the new 

 shoot formed for the purpose. The hearts then follow tliem, 

 and gather into one collection at the bottom of the new shoot; 

 and preparing a vessel for the purpose, run within it, in the cu-. 

 rious manner I have before shown, dropping into each bud so 

 many hearts as the seeds recpiire. But in all other plants, espe- 

 cially annuals and herbaceous plants, and those I am now sliow- 

 jng, they proceed without stopping, to the seed-vessel and seeds. 

 One of the most curious subjects I have discovered in plants is 

 the entrance of the juices through the Iniirs of plants. I have 

 repeatedly shown that that which was taken for perspiration in 

 plants, is the reception of the atmosj)heric juices into the 

 plants : indeed it is a disgrace to science that this mistake should 

 subsist, while the most minute microscope will show the folly of 

 calling that perspiration which is on a long pedestal, and which 

 changes its forms with each plant, and presents a set of chemical 

 glasses that when magnified, can only be construed into 7t'/t)77i, 

 receivers, piieiimaluiit$tramen's,&:c. &c. Some of them resem- 

 ble ours ; some are so curious that tlicy fill the mind with astonish- 

 ment, and show that if we properly attended to them without 

 prejudice or the spirit of contradiction, we should gain a know- 

 ledge in areometry, no othev sii/ject could so well supply \ for 

 the manner in which these instnuuents manage the gases, and 

 contrive to form a vacuum whenever it is necessary, between the 

 astonishing valves of their various formed retorts, is most mar- 

 vellous. But I have seen them repeatedly, when much nuignificd, 

 boil up as on fire, while a part has exploded without the smallest 

 danger to the rest, — but that is not always the case. How can 



such 



