126 THE ART OF CULTURE. 



The former produced 47 /^ --, the latter only 



Q^7 // (J &v ' 



67 f y . 



These well-authenticated observations remove 

 every doubt as to the part which sugar, starch, and 

 gum play in the development of plants ; and it ceases 

 to be enigmatical, why these three substances exer- 

 cise no influence on the growth or process of nutri- 

 tion of a matured plant, when supplied to them as 

 food. 



The accumulation of starch in plants during the 

 autumn has been compared, although certainly 

 erroneously, to the fattening of hibernating animals 

 before their winter sleep ; but in these animals 

 every vital function, except the process of respira- 

 tion is suspended, and they only require, like a 

 lamp slowly burning, a substance rich in carbon 

 and hydrogen to support the process of combustion 

 in the lungs. On their awakening from their 

 torpor in the spring, the fat has disappeared, but 

 has not served as nourishment. It has not caused 

 the least increase in any part of their body, neither 

 has it changed the quality of any of their organs. 

 With nutrition, properly so called, the fat in these 

 animals has not the least connexion. 



The annual plants form and collect their future 

 nourishment in the same way as the perennial ; 

 they store it in their seeds in the form of vegetable 

 albumen, starch, and gum, which are used by the 

 germs for the formation of their leaves and first 

 radicle fibres. The proper nutrition of the plants, 



