78 VEGETABLES. 



normal specimen, after tlie likeness of the parent 

 plant. 



127. The germ consists of a 'plumule and rac^zcZe, the 

 first of which is destined to shoot upward into stem, 

 branches and leaves ; the last, to spread itself in the 

 soil into roots. Each leaf is to be an absorbent of ve- 

 getable food from the air ; and each root, with an open 

 mouth at its extremity, is to run, as fast as possible, 

 after the best food contained in the ground for that 

 particular plant. There is no more doubt that plants 

 exercise choice — select their food — than that cattle 

 prefer sweet grass to sour ; though it has been proved, 

 that in some cases, they will take the wrong food, 

 when they cannot get the right, and make themselves 

 sick by it; just as cattle will eat sour grass, when 

 they can get no other, and as men will eat improper 

 food rather than starve. As brutes will suffer more 

 than men, before they will resort to poisonous diet, 

 so there is reason to believe that plants will endure 

 hunger still longer than brutes, before they will take 

 unwholesome food. 



128. That they will, in extreme cases, take it, and 

 become sickly in consequence, is now pretty generally 

 conceded ; and when therefore you see a stinted, yel- 

 low plant, with no worm at its root, nor any visible 

 cause for its misfortune, you may conclude that it is 

 dying a lingering, cruel death, partly by starvation 

 and partly by poison ; for it is now pretty well decided 

 that plants, contra^ry to what was once believed, will 

 absorb poison, before they will quite starve. 



