~82 PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY. 1'AHT II. 



point of view, the preservation of fruits and seeds in a 

 state fitted for food is a subject of considerable import- 

 ance ; and various plans have been proposed which 

 might combine both cheapness and the means of pro- 

 tecting them from the attacks of vermin, with security 

 against decomposition. Some wheat preserved at Zu- 

 rich for a space of 250 years was found to make ex- 

 cellent bread. One of the simplest and at the same 

 time most efficacious modes of preserving corn, is to 

 inclose it in wooden casks well pitched, and secured 

 against the influences of the weather. When hYshy 

 fruits are thoroughly ripe they become rotten, by the 

 oxygen uniting with their carbon and forming carbonic 

 acid. This effect may be prevented, and the fruit pre- 

 served for a considerable length of time in vessels her- 

 metically sealed, and from which the air, or at least all 

 the oxygen, has been previously expelled. 



IIITH PERIOD OF REPRODUCTION. 



(283.) Germination. When the maturation of 

 the seed is complete, all further development of the 

 embryo ceases, and it then enters into a state of tor- 

 pidity ; and thus it continues until it meets with that 

 peculiar combination of circumstances upon which tin- 

 last process of the general function of reproduction de- 

 pends. After the dispersion of the seed has been 

 secured, we might properly consider the function of 

 reproduction to be terminated ; but as the young plant 

 is still dependent upon the nutriment previously pro- 

 vided for it, and has not yet acquired the power of 

 preparing its own nutriment, we may perhaps be per- 

 mitted to include the process of "germination," of which 

 we are about to speak, among the details of the repro- 

 ductive function. Germination commences with the 

 revival of the embryo from its state of torpidity, and is 

 considered to have terminated when the whole of the 

 nutriment previously prepared has been absorbed, and 

 the young plant is able to derive its nourishment in tin- 



