XLIL A concise View of the Theory respecting Vegetation, 

 lately advanced in the Philosophical Transactions, illustrated 

 in the Culture of the Melon. By Thomas Andrew 

 Knight, Esq. F. R. S. $c. President. 



Read January 2, 1811. 



Th e Council of the Horticultural Society having desired that 

 I would send to the Society a general view of my Theory of 

 Vegetable Physiology, which has been published by the Royal 

 Society, I have great pleasure in obeying their wishes ; and 

 conceiving that I shall be able to render it more clear and 

 useful, by making it illustrative of the proper culture of some 

 particular plant, and by referring the reader to the papers 

 in the Philosophical Transactions for evidence in support of 

 the circumstances stated, I have for this purpose chosen the 

 Melon. 



A seed, exclusive of its seed-coats, consists of one or more 

 cotyledons, a plumule or bud, and the caudex or stem of the 

 future plant, which has generally, though erroneously, been 

 called its radicle*. In these organs, but principally in the 

 cotyledons, is deposited as much of the concrete sap of the 

 parent plant, as is sufficient to feed its offspring, till that has 

 attached itself to the soil, and become capable of absorbing 

 and assimilating new matter. 



The plumule differs from the buds of the parent plant in 



* See Philosophical Transactions, 1809. 



