ON VEGKTABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 85 



becomes a regular steal, and progressively sends 

 out branches and leaves, until the plant in all its 

 beauty and perfection, has been completely de- 

 veloped and formed. 



Such is the process observed by nature in the 

 production of the kidney bean, lupine, cucumber, 

 and various other vegetable productions; while 

 in many, the cotyledons, without forming seminal 

 ieaves, supply from below the surface, the requi- 

 site nourishment; until the plant, by its advance- 

 ment in growth, is rendered independent of their 

 aid. 



This process has not been inaptly compared by 

 many naturalists to the incubation of the egg; in 

 which the yoke and albumen supply the place of 

 the vegetable cotyledon in furnishing the embryo 

 chick with nutriment, until it can obtain its own 

 food ; and like every other in the vegetable eco- 

 nomy, 1 am sure you will coincide with me, is 

 full of beauty and providential care, wonderfully 

 calculated in all its parts to render the means 

 subservient to the end, and strikingly illustrative 

 of the unerring laws and principles by which 

 the natural world throughout is governed and 

 regulated. 



Having previously explained to you, when 

 treating on the functions of the leaves, the man- 

 ner in which the plant, when completely formed, 

 is nourished and preserved ; the cause of the 

 sap's ascent, is the only part of the physiology of 



G3 



