338 VEGETABLES 



only state in which they are of much value to a 

 genuine observer of nature, are, except in very few 

 species, seen only by snatches ; and very much of 

 what is said and written about them is inference 

 and not fact. In many cases, too, it is very im- 

 perfect inference, for it is contradicted by the fact, 

 whenever that is observed. The error consists 

 in attemping to found a fact upon an inference 

 instead of drawing an inference from a fact, which 

 is about as absurd as if we were to attempt to 

 melt snow by cold, or freeze water by heat, 



But in the case of vegetables, we can, in the 

 majority of instances, observe the entire succes- 

 sion from embryo to embryo, not only in the 

 course of a life-time, but in the course of one year ; 

 and where we cannot do that with the individual, 

 we can do what conduces even more to our in- 

 formation. In most species of plants the succes- 

 sions follow each other so closely that, unless in 

 some of the annuals, which appear only for very 

 short periods of the season, we can have all the 

 stages of growth before us at once, from the first 

 germinations of the seed to the final decay of the 

 old plant. In a thousand plants of the same 

 species we can thus observe a thousand points in 

 the history of the same plant; and thus we have, 

 before our eyes, as clear and satisfactory informa- 

 tion as if we could work the seed up to the plant, 

 or change the plant back to the seed by direct 

 experiment, in the same way that we can dissolve 

 or form a chemical compound. It is true that we 

 cannot, in the case of the vegetable, keep the sub- 

 stances out of which it is immediately compound- 

 ed in boxes and bottles, or pour the water directly 

 out of a pitcher, or apply the fire directly by a 



