t 



M4- SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS/ Sect. IX. 1.3. 



iieceflary to all organic life ; and which renders the living fibres both 

 of the vegetable and animal world obedient to the (limuli, which are 

 naturally applied to them. 



Whence we may in fome meafure comprehend a difficult quef- 

 tion ; why the plume of a feed fowed upon, or in the earth, fhould 

 afcend, and the root defcend, which has been afcribed to a myfterious 

 inftindti the plumula is Simulated by the air into a£lion, and elon- 

 gates it felf, where it is thus mofl excited ; and the radicle is flimu- 



r 



lated by moifture, and elongates itfelf thus, where it is moft excited, 

 whence one of them grows upwards in queft of its adapted objed, 

 and the other downward. 



r 



The hrll: fource of nutriment fupplied to the femlnal embryon, af- 



ter it falls from the parent plant, exifts in the feed-lobes 



tyi 



dons, which either remain beneath the earth, and 



permeated by 



the umbilical veflels of the embryon plant, which abforb the muci 

 laginous, farinaceous, or oily matter depofited in them, as in the bean 



pifum ; or 



the feed-lobes rife 



p into the air along with the you 



& 



plant, as in the kidney-bean, phafeolus, become feed-leaves, and ferve 



both as a nutritive and refpiratory 

 lobes generally contain mucilage, 



Thefe cotyledons or feed 



quince-feed 



ft arch 



wh 



or oil, as in 



feed. Some of thefe nutritive materials 



probably abforbed unchanged, or difTolved only by the moift 



of the earth : oth 



rted into fugar partly by a chem 



procefs, and partly by the digeftive powers of the young plant, as ap 



pears in the procefs of germinating barley 

 malt : th( 



and 



convertnig: it 



into 



fe refervoirs of nutriment are hence perfe£lly 



5 



the white of the egg, a part of which is probably abforbed unchanged 



by the lymphatics of the young embry 



d a part of it converted 



into a 



fw 



chyle for th 



fhment of the chick, when it has 



acquired a ftomach. 



If the feed be deprived of thefe cotyledons, foon after the root ap 



pears, it will continue to grov/, but with lefs vigour, and is faid to pro 



duo 



S£C 



due 



root 



lia^^ 



or 





oily 



P 



Ian 



A 



plan 



afte 

 fern 



afte 



gro 



rlfl 

 tb 

 fr 



I 



in 



pea 

 ter 



tha 

 po\ 



] 



Wil 



vie 



be 

 ed 

 be 



po 



Co 



