*O GERMINATION OF THE SEED. CHAP. I, 



demy>fbr the year 1669; and the inference deduced 

 from them is, that seeds in general do not germi- 

 nate if deprived of atmospheric air; but that Cress- 

 seed, Lettuce-seed, and a few others will germinate 

 even in the vacuum of an air pump. But the same 

 experiments, when afterwards repeated by Boyle, 

 Muschenbrock, and Boerhaave, with a much better 

 apparatus, did not confirm the latter part of the 

 result. On the contrary, they tended all to prove 

 that no seed germinates in the vacuum of an air- 

 pump ; and that in the cases of germination men- 

 tioned by Homberg, the vacuum must have been 

 very imperfect. 



The same experiments were again repeated by 

 Saussure the younger,* who says that the seeds of 

 Peas gave indications of germination in vacuo in 

 the course of four days, but never effected any de* 

 velopement of their parts beyond the first appear- 

 ance of the radicle. But is this a sufficient proof 

 that germination had been really begun ? Perhaps 

 it might have been nothing more than merely the 

 effect of the water with which the Peas were moist- 

 ened, distending their parts ; and perhaps we 

 should conclude upon the whole, that in a perfect 

 vacuum no seed will germinate ; but that in the 

 most perfect vacuum hitherto formed by human art 

 some seeds may germinate. 



filucida- Such were the discoveries of phytologists con- 

 pneumatic cerning the agency of atmospheric air in the pro- 



ehemistiy. *. Saus gur ]a Vo> d]a> j sect {< 



