SECT. II. PHYSICAL PHENOMENA. 35 



moisture merely by being soaked in water, though 

 the vital principle should be totally extinct. But Evolution 

 the first infallible symptom of germination is to be aide, 6 * 

 deduced from the prolongation of the radicle be- 

 yond the extent to which it would attain merely 

 in consequence of soaking. In the latter case the 

 augmentation of the radicle is limited by the 

 extent and capacity of its envelopes, or by the 

 quantity of moisture necessary to its saturation ; 

 or by causes inducing incipient putrefaction. But 

 in the former case its augmentation is circumscribed 

 by no such limits : for it not only assumes a 

 swoln and distended appearance in consequence of 

 the absorption of moisture ; but acquires an addi- 

 tional and progressive increase in the actual assi- 

 milation of nutriment, bursting through its proper 

 integuments, and directing its extremity down- 

 wards into the soil. (PL IX. Fig. 1 and 2.) 



The next step in the process of germination is Of the co- 

 the evolution of the cotyledon or cotyledons, unless } 

 the seed is altogether acotyledonous, or the coty- 

 ledons hypogean. (PL IX. Fig. 2.) 



The next step, in the case of seeds furnished Of the 

 with cotyledons, is that of the extrication of the p 

 plumelet, or first real leaf, from within or from 

 between the cotyledon or cotyledons, and its ex- 

 pansion in the open air. (PL IX. Fig. 3 and 4.) 



The last and concluding step is the developement And stem, 

 of the rudiments of a stem, if the species is fur- 



