J02 BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS. [Ch. XVI. 



bles. however, there is no germination until after the opening ot 

 the pericarp and the tall of the seed. The time at which differ- 

 ent species of seeds, after being committed to the earth, heg'n 

 to vegetate, varies from one day, to some years. The seeds ol 

 grasses, and the grain-like plants, as rye, wheat, corn, &c. ger- 

 minate within two days. Cruciform plants, such as the radish 

 and mustard, the leguminous, as the pea and bean, require a 

 little more time. The peach, walnut, and peony, remain in the 

 earth a year before they vegetate. 



425. All kinds of plants germinate sooner if they are sown 

 immediately after being separated from the pericarps, than ii 

 kept some time. 



426. The seeds of most vegetables preserve their living prin- 

 ciple for years : some lose it as soon as they are detached from 

 their pericarps. This is said to be the case in the coffee and 

 tea. The seeds of some of the grasses, as wheat, &c. are said 

 to retain their vital principle even for centuries. It is asserted 

 that mosses, kept for two hundred years in the herbariums of 

 botanists, have revived by being soaked in water. 



427. An American writerf says that " seeds, if imbedded in 

 stone or dry earth, and removed from the influence of air o* 

 moisture, might be made to retain their vegetative quality or 

 principle of life for a thousand years." But he adds, " life is a 

 property which we do not understand : yet life, however feeble 

 and obscure, is always life, and between it and death there is a 

 distance as great as existence and non-existence." 



428. Before commencing the study of botany, when you 

 looked at the trunk of a tree, a little herb, or a leaf, you proba- 

 bly considered it very simple in its -structure ; you saw it only 

 as one mass ; but you now perceive that plants, like animals, 

 consist of collection* of fibres ; that they have parts which in 

 some lespects are like our skin, bones, flesh, and blood ; that 

 they are living organized beings, and like animals, are subject 

 to life and death. 



429. Plants differ from animals, in possessing none of the or- 

 gans of sense. They can neither see, hear, r^ste, smell, nor 



t B. Barton. 



425. Is it better that seeds should be kept sometime before they are 

 sown? 



426. Are seeds alike with respect to retaining their living principle 1 



427. What is remarked by an American writer respecting the life 

 of seeds ? 



428. Do you regard plants now in the same manner as before you 

 began to study them ? 



429. Ho?/ do plants differ from animals, and how do they referable 



