292 GERMINATION 



very small trouble it is, we should never have gone 

 about to cultivate timber in one plant, by the very 

 process whereby we destroy timber in all other 

 plants. Yet we have done and we continue to do 

 that; for, grafting excepted, we breed oaks and 

 peaches in the same ground, and much after the 

 same manner. We may make some difference in 

 the mould in which they grow ; or we may choose 

 that which we fancy will be the best for each ; but 

 we do not even that as observers of nature, at least 

 as very attentive or close observers ; for our good 

 soil for oak is that on which we have seen large oaks 

 growing, whether the timber of those oaks happened 

 to be good or bad. 



Let us return to our acorn and our embryo oak. 

 That embryo plant, we shall suppose, is just begin- 

 ning to be independent, by which time it may have 

 stricken its root six or eight inches into the ground ; 

 for the oak remains much longer on the cotyledons 

 than many other trees, and has also a root and root- 

 lets ready for action in the earth. The cotyledons 

 do not rise and partially take the form and probably 

 perform the functions of leaves, as in many other 

 plants ; so that the action of the air is confined to 

 the rising plumule, and the true leaves which it puts 

 forth. When the acorns are sown by nature, they 

 are sown on the surface, not under it. By looking 

 back to figure A, on page 93, it will be seen that the 

 sprout tends downwards, as if to reach the ground, 

 while the acorn lies on its side upon the surface, 

 though even then the little tubercle which is to be- 

 come the tree keeps its apex upwards. It is evident, 

 therefore, that that part of the process is naturally 

 done in the air ; and, though seeds are better to have 

 the light excluded during what may be called the 

 " fermentative" part of the process of germination, 

 Which is the earliest stage of it ; yet in the case of 

 the acorn, that is over before the shell is ruptured. 

 The acorn from which the figure was drawn was 



