Philosojphy of Manures. 341;. 



should be required to be brought forward as the cause of fruit- 

 fulness. Poor people, who are diseased or unsound in their 

 general health, will have diseased offspring also ; it can only be 

 the labourer, whom necessary exercise, plain, wholesome food, 

 and freedom from excessive care, have furnished with a healthy 

 and vigorous body, who can produce a healthy offspring. Plants 

 also differ from animals, in every plant being a congeries or 

 system of individuals, and not a single isolated being ; every 

 joint, every bud can be converted into a separate existence ; and 

 it seems to depend on the quality of food furnished, whether this 

 bud shall remain on the plant, and produce an extension of the 

 system, or be perfected into the form of a seed, the germ of a 

 new system of individuals. 



Experiments on the Germination of Seeds, quoted some time 

 ago in this Magazine from the Annals of PhilosopJii/^ I think, as 

 made by a Mr. Taylor, and lately brought forward by Dr. 

 Horner in the Chronicle, show that the different rays of the 

 spectrum have very different effects in furthering germination : 

 the violet, or deoxidising, end of the spectrum having a power- 

 ful effect in furthering germination ; the red,, or oxidising, end 

 destroying it altogether. This is a further proof of the benefit 

 of alkalies in germination^ In my essay on that subject in the 

 Magazine for 1838, and in the review of the Theory of Horti- 

 culture last year, I stated that the experiments of M. Maltuen, 

 on seeds placed at the negative, or alkaline, pole of a battery 

 furthering germination, and the reverse at the positive pole, had 

 led him to try the germination of seeds in phials of alkalies and 

 acids, which pi'oduced the same results as the violet and red 

 rays above quoted. The violet, or deoxidising, ray, the negative, 

 or alkaliae, pole of a galvanic wire, and the exhibiting of alkalies 

 themselves, are apparently different ways of arriving at the same 

 result, but are all conducted on one principle. The presence of 

 oxygen causes acidity, and the separation of it produces an 

 alkaline state of the substance acted on ; the violet ray and the 

 negative pole are therefore alkaline, the red ray and the positive 

 pole acid. Either of the methods will, therefore, if in equal 

 quantity, produce the same result. I formerly stated that I had 

 used lime as a cheap alkali, and as its being further useful in 

 withdrawing a portion of the carbon necessary to be withdrawn 

 in reducing the starch, the food of the young plants, to a solu- 

 ble state. I there mentioned the result of the application, which 

 was sufficient to confirm me in the correctness of the principle. 

 I have had no seed of the same description since to operate on ; 

 in fact, it is difficult to say when it is in a fit state, how far the 

 moisture necessary to preserve the excitability, or life, of the 

 tissue in the young embryo may be withdrawn, before death, or 

 the loss of excitability, ensues. After this, every stimulus ap- 



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