90 REPRODUCTION OF PLANTS. 



scending portion is named the radicle, and forms 

 the future root, &c. : the collar is the line of 

 separation between them. " When the seed is 

 called into action, germination takes place. The 

 juices of the plant, which before were insipid, 

 immediately afterwards abound with sugar," as 

 in the conversion of Barley into Malt, " which 

 process consists in promoting the germination of 

 the seed by moderate heat and moisture, and 

 checking it by the higher temperature of the 

 kiln as soon as the largest possible quantity of 

 saccharine matter is formed. When the seed 

 has germinated, and sugar is produced, the period 

 of growth commences." This growth is in the 

 first instance caused by the absorption and de- 

 composition of water, whose oxygen combines 

 with the superfluous carbon of the seed, and is 

 expelled in the form of carbonic acid gas. When 

 the absorption of oxygen has removed a suffi- 

 cient quantity of carbon from the seed, " the 

 young plant begins to absorb food, and to grow 

 by the processes of assimilation and respiration 

 already described ;" and as soon as the seed is 

 once active it receives, by a special provision of 

 nature, a larger proportional share of the sap 

 than any other part of the plant. Probably the 

 heat produced by the consumption of its carbon 



