9 ON THE STB.UCTURE AND GROWTH OF SEEDS. 



chestnut; or in a long cylindrical slip, as in the pea. So 

 violent is the force used against it, that, if it was not by 

 various means greatly strengthened, the embryo would burst 

 from the seed, long before its time, probably destroy itself 

 by u premature birth, and tear the vessels in a manner highly 

 inimical to their future usefulness. How beautiful the pro- 

 viblons of Nature! What care, what attention, to each 

 minrite circumstance! 

 First stage of '" ^^^ ^^st Stage of the third period the radicle, growa 

 the 3d period too large for its prison, bursts the seed, and comes forth at 

 the hilum or opening: which, defended by the double cu- 

 ticle, will only admit of a certain aperture in ^ome seeds, 

 vhile in others it divides the lobes, 



1 shall not enter into a thorough detail of the manner, in 



which the embryo rises and turns to leave the seed, as I 



have given an exact description of it in my former letter; 



entering very minutely into every particular of that pheno- 



bMge of menon ; but proceed to the last stage, which concludes the 



jd period. y,\^Q\^ history of the embryo, fixing it in the earth, and 



raising its head on high. The seed lobes however continue 



««idents to ^ii=itened to the fresh plant, lest any accident should happen 



■h- >ooi pro- to the root: for should this be the case, the nourishing ves- 



ogains . g^jg^ g^jj remaining on the holders, would reassume their 



office, regain their former fulness, and with the help of the 



albumen (of which the seeds still retain a certain quantity) 



. nourish the young f>lant, till the radicle had recovered 



strength sufficient again to supply its place. 1 have so often 



proved this faft by severing the new root to try its effe^i: on 



the embryo, that I am well assured of its reality : as it never 



failed to produce these consequences. 



I could have diversihed this account, and perhaps made it 

 more amusing, instead of a dry detail of facts: but 1 write 

 meiely lo show the truth, and I wished particularly to con- 

 fine this account to what happens to seeds in general, rather 

 than to the seeds of any particular plant; that it might in 

 some ni'^asure clear up the errours I so much lament: there 

 The rad.de '^ nothing more therefore to show, than that, as the radicle 

 always the tap (which is always the tap root J touches the earth, the nourish- 

 '"°^" ing vessels decay; and the primordial leaves raise themselves 



with the stalk in a perpendicular posture. Setds difier at 



this 



