GROWTH OF PLANTS. 235 



controls all these, \\hi;:h sets in action the weak but yet in- 

 vincible germ, which guides with unerring instinct the plant 

 in the choice of its food, the potent agency which works so 

 silently, but yet exerts a power which is incomprehensibly 

 great, the life which springs from death, which is constantly 

 perishing and rising from its ashes, the Vital Principle which 

 crowns the labors of the farmer with success, which covers 

 his fields with verdure and in the season with golden grain 

 and fills his barns with wealth, making animal existence 

 possible and supporting the higher life of man with his still 

 more wonderful intelligent mind all this living system is a 

 miracle before which the mind of man lies helpless and con- 

 fesses itself unable to comprehend it. This brings us in fact 

 face to face with the omnipotent Creator; whether this be 

 the personal existence which some believe, or a process of 

 evolution by which a primeval germ has gradually pro- 

 gressed from the lowest form of organized matter, up to the 

 highest organized form of life a reasoning man. 



We cannot consider this from a chemial point of view, 

 because vital force overrides chemical laws and is beyond 

 our comprehension. But all force is mysterious. Gravita- 

 tion is something, the essential nature of which we cannot 

 penetrate, yet we can understand its manner of action and 

 its relations to matter; but while gravity cannot be sus- 

 pended, vital force may be and all the wonderful potential 

 agency which exists in a seed may remain undeveloped for 

 years. This seems to comprise the sum of all the differ- 

 ences between other forces and vital force or life. 



Vital force, has been described as a collective term em- 

 bracing all those causes upon which the phenomena of life 

 depend. Plants and animals, as living beings, are only 

 parts of the great universe; are governed by its laws; and 

 are to be studied by the same methods as all other phenom- 

 ena of nature. 



Every plant springs from a seed, and every seed contains 

 a rudiment of a new plant, called the embryo or germ. The 

 germ is imbedded in the seed, in a protecting mass consist- 

 ing chiefly of starch and gluten. If a grain of corn is cut 



