OBSERVER AND RECORD 



OP AGRICULTURE, SCIENCE, AND ART. 



EDITED BY D. PEIRCE. 



Wo. 4.] 



Philadelpbia, Monday, January 0, 1S39. 



[Vol. I. 



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-.A CONCISE VIEW OF THE THEORY RESPECT- 

 ING VEGETATION. 



Lately advanced in the Philosophical 

 Transactions illustrated in the cul- 

 ture of the Melon. 



By T. A. KNIGHT, F. R. S. Transactions of the Hor- 

 ticultural Society, Vol. 1. pg. 5 



•... "A seed," says Mr. Knight, "exclusive 

 bf its seed coats, consists of one or more 

 -cotyledons, a plumule or bud, and the cau- 

 dex or stem of the future plant, which has 

 generally, though erroneously been called 

 its radicle. 



It is asserted, that in these organs, but 

 principally in the cotyledons, is deposited 

 as much of the concrete sap of the parent 

 plant, as is sufficient to feed its offspring 

 till that has attached itself to the soil and 

 become capable- of absorbing and assimi- 

 lating new matter. The plumule is stated 

 to differ from the buds of the parent plant 

 in possessing a new and independant life, 

 and thence in assuming in its subsequent 

 growth diflerent habits from those of the 

 parent plant; the organizable matter, de- 

 rived from the parent probably existing in 

 the cotyledons, and like the alburnum of 

 trees, undergoing considerable apparent 

 change.«, before it becomes the true circu- 

 lating fluid of the plant. In the process of 

 germination, the vital fluid is thought to be 

 drawn from the cotyledons into thecaudex 

 of the plumule or bud through vessels 

 which correspond with the bark of the fa- 

 ilure tree. From the point of the caudex 

 springs the first root, which if uninterrup- 

 ted by any opposing body, descends in a 



straight line toward the centre of the earth 

 provided the seed has been permitted to 

 vegetate at rest. The first root being put 

 forth, the caudex elongates in a diametri- 

 cally opposite direction and raises the co- 

 tyledons out of the soil in many kinds of 

 plants, which then becomes seminal leaves, 

 and furnish nutriment, and if these are 

 destroyed, the plant perishes. The bark 

 of the root now beginning to execute its 

 office of depositing albernous, or w'oody 

 matter; the sap, which had hitherto only 

 descended through the vessels of the bark, 

 begins to ascend through the albernum, 

 and the plumule in consequence elongates, 

 its leaves enlarge and unfold, and a set of 

 ve.-sels which did not exist in the root are 

 lirought into action. The power of each 

 proper leaf to generate sap is held to be 

 in the compound ratio of its width, its 

 thickness, and the exposure of its upper 

 surface to light in proper temperature; and 

 as the growth of the plant proceeds, the 

 number and width of the mature leaves 

 increase in proportion to the young leaves 

 to be formed, and this accumulation con- 

 tinues during a succession of weeks, 

 months, or years, according to the natural 

 habits and duration of the plant; and the 

 sap thus generated is deposited in the bulb 

 of the tulip, in the tuber of the potato, in 

 the fibrous roots of grasses, and in the al- 

 burnum of trees during the winter, and is 

 dispersed through their foliage and bark, 

 during the spring and summer; and as soon 

 as the plant has attained its age of puberty, 

 a portion of its sap is expended in the pro- 

 duction of blossoms and fruit; and the 



