VEGETABLES. 79 



REQUISITES OF GERMINATION. 



129. While the embryo is sleeping in the parent 

 seed, it has no hold on the earth or air. The circum- 

 stances which arouse it to go forth, are warmth^ moxs- 

 ture^ and air^ with absence of light. Its food, till it has 

 grown sufficiently to reach the earth with its roots, 

 and the air with its leaves, must be derived f^om the 

 seed in which it is shut up. This food consists of 

 starch, gluten, and albumen. Now when you plant a 

 seed, one it may be which has lain dormant ever since 

 the days of the Pharaos, you put it into circumstances 

 requisite for germination — ^you give it the gentle 

 warmth of the ground, you give it moisture ; by cover- 

 ing it lightly, you admit the air, and the air contains 

 oxygen, without which no seed can germinate, nor 

 any plant live, nor any animal breathe ; and by cover- 

 ing it to a sufficient depth you partially exclude the 

 light, which is hurtful to the early stages of vegeta- 

 tion. 



130. If you had sore eyes you might shrink from 

 the light, though at another time you would rejoice in 

 its genial influences. So a plant, till its first leaves 

 are unfolded, hates the light, but loves it afterwards. 



PROCESS OF GERMINATION. 



131. When you supply the circumstances requisite 

 to germination, a chemical action commences within 

 the seed, by which heat is evolved. Materials were 

 storf^ up, ready to act. It is very much as if you 



