FOOD AFTER GERMINATION. 327 
When the act of germination is finished, which occurs 
as soon as the cotyledons and endosperm are exhausted 
of all their soluble matters, the plant begins a fully inde- 
pendent life. Previously, however, to being thus thrown 
upon its own resources, it has developed all the organs 
needful to collect its food from without; it has unfolded 
its perfect leaves into the atmosphere, and pervaded a por- 
tion of soil with its rootlets. 
During the latter stages of germination it gathers its 
nutriment both from the parent seed and from the exter- 
nal sources which afterward serve exclusively for its sup- 
port. 
Being fully provided with the apparatus of nutrition, 
its development suffers no check from the exhaustion of 
the mother seed, unless it has germinated in a sterile soil, 
or under other conditions adverse to vegetative life. 
CHAPTER IL 
§ 1. 
THE FOOD OF THE PLANT WHEN INDEPENDENT OF THE 
SEED. 
This subject will be sketched in this place in but the 
briefest outlines. To present it fully would necessitate 
entering into a detailed consideration of the Atmosphere 
and of the Soil whose relations to the Plant, those of the 
soil especially, are very numerous and complicated, A 
separate volume is therefore required for the adequate 
treatment of these topics. 
The Roots of a plant, which are in intimate contact 
with the soil, absorb thence the water that fills the active 
