42 PRINCIPLES OF GARDENING. [CH. I. 



begins immediately to enlarge in size. Tliis is 

 occasioned by its absorbing moistiu'e, %vliich, passing 

 into the Cotyledons, causes their immediate increase 

 in size. The rapidity of tliis process is remai'kable, 

 and warns the gai'dener from distui'bing the seed 

 after it is once committed to the ground. A few 

 choice peas, from -which to raise stock, being sown 

 accidentally in ground devoted to another crop, were 

 removed after twenty-four hours, and were not again 

 committed to the ground for some days. Not one 

 of them produced a fniitfid plant, and only two or 

 three vegetated. 



This is in no degree surprising, because in the ma- 

 jority of healthy seeds cultivated in our open gi'ound 

 departments, the embryo will be found swollen 

 within three hours ; within six hours the radicle 

 will be preceptible ; in from one to six days the 

 radicle will have burst the integuments of the seed ; 

 within from two to seven days the pi nutlet will have 

 similarly escaped ; and in from four to twenty-four 

 da3's perfect roots will have been developed, and 

 the leaves appear above the surface. 



Moistui'e, as already stated, is absorbed and causes 

 the immediate enlargement of the parts of the seed, 

 and this moisture though it will and does penetrate 

 through the suiiace of the integuments, yet is chiefly 

 imbibed through the hilum or scai\ It passes to the 

 cotyledons, causing their enlargement, and settmg in 



