On the VhysiologTj of Kegetalles. 403 



foundation of vegetable life to some degree of regularity and per- 

 fection. The germ which surrounds the embryo cannot grow 

 till after fructification, because the surrounding part of the heart 

 does not grow or increase till then ; but there appears a little 

 germ round the vacancy in the heart below the branch from 

 which it seems to shoot : these germs always remain white, which 

 is probably the cause of their not being hefore noticed; for there 

 is such a confusion of richness (if I uiay so call it) as to render it 

 extremely difticult at first to distinguish or discr/mi/iale each se- 

 parate ingredient; and i have several times, in drawing the root of 

 X.\\eJruvi more than twelve years ago, been astonished with seeing 

 fJowers, leaves, branches, and seeds in quantities ; and though I 

 drew it exactly as it appeared, I was too prejudiced then to be- 

 lieve what I saw— I could not then credit that the received 

 opinions could be so very far removed from truth. Now I ven- 

 ture to trust my eyes, though still with proper diffidence I hope. 

 I have since found that in uet plants, in a. dried specimen of the 

 arimi root, aud in the grasses, I can very plaiidv see the shoot 

 in the heart of the seed, while in the root, with less powers than 

 the solar microscope ; nay, with rather low ones of the com- 

 pound : yet it certainly recpiires good eyes, and the having (as 

 Sir Wiliiam Herschel calls it) learned to see, to view it in all 

 its surroimding parts: — yet old as he is, so perfect ore his eyes 

 that 1 am sure he would see it with even lower powers; for so 

 formed are his eyes by custom, so fitted for the purpose of 

 glasses, that they even now far exceed those of a young person, 



I shall now ^we a sketch of the whole process, that I may be 

 tboroughly couiprehenilcd — begging pardon lor repetitions that, 

 in so new a case, can hardly be avoided, without danger of nns- 

 couceptions. 



VVIieii the seed is first formed in tiie extremity of the radicle, 

 it soon (Irom powder) changes to halts, tied together by a line of 

 life : for it is the collecting of this powder, and its attraction for 

 the line, which is probably the first cause of its aggregating. 

 The (lowers then, which had spread from \.he first old seed, run 

 down into the thread roots and enter the radicle just where it 

 is fastened to the root; and it must be ihkrk that each /<to?-^ 

 of the seed takes in its germ, and female. A curious speci- 

 men which I dissected last year, but could not then comprehend, 

 proves this: — it was a fresh grown radicle of the Iris. 1 make 

 it a rule to imitate exactly the pattern specimen (whether I un- 

 derstand it or not). I left it therefore, assured that Nature would 

 explain it to my satisfaction at some future time; which // has 

 vow done (see fig. G, AA), where the powder first forms into 

 seeds: it is in this plant of a pink colour, which makes it easily 

 C c 2 distinguished : 



