SECT. II. SEEDS. 



the plant was springing up in great plenty from 

 seeds previously dispersed, which, as they float 

 long on the surface of the water, could not but have 

 mixed more or less with the portion conveyed to 

 the clay. This presumption is grounded upon the 

 fact that a number of other plants of the same 

 species were coming up in other parts of the garden 

 that were watered from the same pond ; while in 

 the exposed clay which never was watered except 

 by rains or dews, no such plant was found : hence 

 it follows equally as from the experiment of Malpi- 

 ghi, that the earth produces no plant without the 

 intervention of a seed, or of some other species of 

 vegetable germe deposited in it by nature or by art. 



SECTION II. 



Seeds. 



WHEN the seed has reached maturity in the due Their 

 and regular course of the developement of its several profusion, 

 parts, it detaches itself sooner or later from the 

 parent plant, either singly or along with its pericarp, 

 and drops into the soil, where it again germinates 

 and takes root, and springs up into a new individual. 

 Such is the grand means instituted by nature for 

 the replenishing and perpetuating of the vegetable 

 kingdom ; the wisdom and efficacy of which will 

 equally appear whether we regard the great fertility 

 of vegetables in general, and incalculable fertility of 



