OF LIVING FORMS; OR, MORPHOLOGY. 85 



Of the spiral radicle we shall speak by-and-by ; at 

 present let us look at the plumule. Would it be 

 thought that a great and most important law in 

 the production of organic form is here exhibited? 



Fig. 10. 



Pea which has germinated in water. a Plumule. 6 Radicle. 



But it is so. The reason of the bent-up form 

 which the plumule assumes is easily discovered. 

 The end of it is fixed by being embraced between 

 the two halves (or cotyledons) of the pea (see 

 Fig. 11), and the stalk, therefore, as it lengthens, 

 necessarily grows into a projecting curve. It is a 

 result of yroivth under limit. Does it not seem 

 almost puerile to make matter of special observa- 

 tion of such a thing as this ? Yes, it is puerile ; 

 it is like a child. And the kingdom of science, 

 Lord Bacon has observed, is like the kingdom of 

 heaven in this, that only by becoming as a child can 

 it be entered. 



