GERMINATIOX. G9 



stance of the seed is composed, is the great principle in 

 nature opposed to putrefaction. In common parlance, it is 

 antiseptic. When the housekeeper wishes to preserve green 

 cucumbers, etc., she packs them down in salt. Salt is 

 antiseptic, and prevents these things from fermenting and 

 decaying. When she is ready to make them into pickles 

 or sweetmeats, she soaks them in water to remove the salt, 

 preparatory to converting them into agreeable articles for 

 the table. 



172. Thus is given you a very homely but familiar com- 

 parison to make you understand that carbon is the strong 

 anti-putrefactive principle in nature, and that the seed, 

 being almost all carbon, is on this account preserved from 

 decay; and that nature, like the housekeeper soaking her 

 fruits in water to remove the salt, must put her seed into 

 some situation where this superfluous carbon shall be re- 

 moved. 



173. You know seeds differ greatly in the duration of 

 time they observe between perfecting and germinating. 

 Some actually sprout while yet in the pericarp, as the well- 

 known epiphyte, love-vine. Some retain the living princi- 

 ple only a few months ; others years, as the olive, peach, 

 etc.; and some varieties of the grasses and grains will con- 

 tinue centuries without losing it. Chemistry informs us 

 that these differences are due to the quantity, greater or 

 less, of carbon in the seed. 



174. You will now perceive how indispensable is oxygen, 

 as it alone has power to combine with the carbon. It thus 

 forms carbonic acid gas, which is immediately conducted 

 off. But after life is awakened it forms diastase for the 

 nourishment of the plant. This diastase converts the 



172. Why does Nature pack seeds in carbon ? What then becomes necessary 

 for their germination ? 



173. Do seeds differ in time of germination? These differences are due to 

 what ? 



1 74. What does oxygen do ? The remaining oxygen unites with what to form 

 diastase ? And diastase does what ? What becomes of the sugar ? 



