GERMINATION OF THE SEED. CHAP. I. 



still the same both in germination and putrefaction 

 namely, the abstraction of carbon. The results 

 are indeed different. But their difference is easily 

 accounted for ; because in the latter case the seed 

 loses a considerable quantity of water, or of hydro- 

 gene and oxygene, which in the former case it 

 retains ; and hence the proportion of its carbon is 

 of necessity augmented. 



Such are the phenomena, physical or chemical, 

 observable in the germination of the seed ; air and 

 moisture are absorbed from the soil or atmosphere 

 by the scar, foramen, or envelopes. Their agency is 

 immediately exerted on the farina of the albumen 

 or cotyledons ; and a food is thus prepared for the 

 nourishment of the tender embryo, to which it 

 passes through the medium of the vessels of the 

 cotyledons, or, as they have been also denominated, 

 the seminal root. The radicle gives the first indi- 

 cations of life, expanding and bursting its integu- 

 ments, and at length fixing itself in the soil : the 

 plumelet next unfolds its parts, developing the ru- 

 diments of leaf, branch, L and trunk : and finally 

 the seminal leaves decay and drop off; and the 

 embryo has been converted into a plant capable of 

 abstracting immediately from the soil or atmosphere 

 the nourishment necessary to its future growth. 



