160 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



No. 3. To illustrate again : As sun-heat falling upon water disappears 

 as heat, to reappear as mechanical power, raising the water into the 

 clouds, so sunlight falling upon green leaves disappears as light, to re- 

 appear as vital force lifting matter from the mineral into the organic 

 kingdom. 



2. Germination. — Growing plants, it is seen, take their life-force 

 from the sun ; but seeds germinate and commence to grow in the dark. 

 Evidently there must be some other source from which they draw their 

 supply of force. They cannot draw force from the sun. This fact is 

 intimately connected with another fact, viz., that they do not draw 

 their food from the mineral kingdom. The seed in germination feeds 

 entirely upon a supply of organic matter laid up for it by the mother- 

 plant. It is the decomposition of this organic matter which supplies 

 the force of germination. Chemical compounds are comparatively 

 stable — it requires sunlight to tear them asunder ; but organic matter 

 is more easily decomposed — it is almost spontaneously decomposed. It 

 may be that heat (a necessary condition of germination) is the force 

 which determines the decomposition. However this may be, it is cer- 

 tain that a portion of the organic matter laid up in the seed is decom- 

 posed, burned up, to form C0 2 and H 2 0, and that this combustion 

 furnishes the force by which the mason-work of tissue-making is ac- 

 complished. In other words, of the food laid up in the form of starch, 

 dextrine, protoplasm, a portion is decomposed to furnish the force by 

 which the remainder is organized. Hence the seed always loses weight 

 in germination ; it cannot develop unless it is in part consumed; "it 

 is not quickened except it die." This self-consumption continues until 

 the leaves and roots are formed ; then it begins to draw force from the 

 sun, and food from the mineral kingdom. 



To illustrate : In germination, matter running down from plane 

 No. 3 to plane No. 2 generates force by which other similar matter is 

 moved about and raised to a somewhat higher position on plane No. 3. 

 As water raised by the sun may be stored in reservoirs, and in run- 

 ning down from these may do work, so matter raised by sun-force into 

 the organic kingdom by one generation is stored as force to do the 

 work of germination of the next generation. Again, as, in water run- 

 ning through an hydraulic ram, a portion runs to waste, in order to 

 generate force to lift the remainder to a higher level, so, of organic 

 matter stored in the seed, a portion runs to waste to create force to 

 organize the remainder. 



Thus, then, it will be seen, that three things, viz., the absence of 

 sunlight, the use of organic food, and the loss of weight, are indis- 

 solubly connected in germination, and all explained by the principle 

 of conservation of force. 



3. Starting of Buds. — Deciduous trees are entirely destitute of 

 leaves during the winter. The buds must start to grow in the spring 

 without leaves, and therefore without drawing force from the sun. 



