S^c 



146 



SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 



Sect. IX. 



1-4,5 



account new feed is njuch to be preferred to that which has been 

 long kept. 



4. Many feeds when mature are difperfed far from the parent, tree, 

 for the purpofe of their growth, by various contrivances, as men- 

 tioned in Se(5l. VII. 2. 5. Some of thefe are furrounded with hard 

 ihells, which are impenetrable by infedls, as they lie on the earth to 

 take root, as peaches, nectarines, nuts, cocoa-nuts. Other feeds are 

 furnished with an acrid covering to prevent the depredation of infeds, 

 as the peel of oranges and lemons, the outward hufk and inward rind 

 of walnuts, and of cafhew-nuts, and the Ikin of muftard-feed, and 

 rape-feed ; other feeds for the fame purpofe abound with bitter or 

 narcotic juices, as the horfe-chefnut, acorn, apricot, cherry, many of 

 which fupply materials to the fhops of medicine, and may fupply nu* 

 triment in times of fcarcity; as the flarch, which they contain, may 

 be procured by grating them into cold water, and wafhing away the 

 mucilage, and the poifonous material, which adheres to it, or which 



is foluble in water^ 



5. The plumula of the feed, or embryon plant, abforbs the nutri- 

 ment laid up for it in the feed-lobes by veffels, which permeate them 

 for that purpofe, and have been termed umbilical veffels ; and after- 

 wards (hoots its roots down into the fruit, or into the earth, in fearch 

 of other nourifliment -, and expands its leaves in the air as an organ of 

 refpiration, 



Thofe plants, which are ufually termed annuals, produce their 

 flowers and die in the fame year in which their feeds are fown ; as 

 barley, oats, and a variety of garden flowers. Thefe neverthelefs in 

 accurate language (hould be termed biejinials, becaufe the feed in 

 this climate is produced in one fummer ; and the embryon plant be- 

 comes mature in the next ; as the feed is generally preferved in our 

 granaries, or feed-boxes, and not committed to the ground till the eo- 



fprings for many of thefe vegetables are not natives of this 



climate, 



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