40 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



The manner in which plants are produced through 

 the germination of seeds is so well known, that 

 in any community where the human mind has been 

 advanced in that degree which incites to the cultiva- 

 tion of the earth, it would perhaps be difficult to find 

 a man so insensible to the workings of nature by which 

 he is surrounded, as not to have noticed with admi- 

 ration the phenomena accompanying the develope- 

 ment of vegetable fecundity. It is true we know not 

 how this standing miracle is brought ^about ; and, in 

 all human probability, we never shall be able to 

 pierce the veil wherein the inciting energy is shrouded 

 to which that fecundity is owing ; but is it possible for 

 us, while conscious that it exists, not to be grateful 

 for the benevolence whereby that energy is ceaselessly 

 called into action ? At one end of the groove, in a 

 grain of wheat, is a small protuberance, as we have 

 already mentioned, which is the germ or embryo of 

 the future plant. This organ has been appropriately 

 called corculum (liUle-heart). It contains within 

 itself a principle, which, if rightly managed, is ca- 

 pable of evolving not only a plant of wheat, with 

 its abundant spike, but also plant after plant, and 

 spike after spike, until, in the course of a few har- 

 vests, the progeny of this little germ would become 

 capable of feeding a nation. Thus it is, that in the 

 lapse of ages, amidst the desolations of rude con- 

 querors, and the alternations which the finest portions 

 of the earth have endured from civilization to semi- 

 barbarism, the vital principle of vegetable life des- 

 tined for the chief support of the human race has 

 not been lost; and it has remained to man, like fire, 

 which he alone of all animals has subjected to his 

 use, to be called forth at his bidding to administer to 

 his support, his comfort, and his advance in every 

 art of social existence. 



The number of stalks thrown up by one grain of 



