118 Upon the supposed Absorbent Powers, fyc. 



treatment in soils of different qualities ; but all perished without 

 a single plumule having expanded, or having apparently received 

 any nutriment, either from the soil or other source. Yet the 

 Spongioles, in these cases, must have contained greatly more living 

 organizable matter, derived from their cotyledons, than the whole 

 body of the seed of a very large majority of plants can possibly 

 contain : but they were, I conclude, incapable of transmitting it 

 into the plumules, owing to the want of alburnum. 



I therefore believe my opinion, that Spongioles are imperfectly 

 organized parts of the plant, which neither absorb from the soil, 

 nor transmit fluids of any kind for the service of other parts of it, 

 to be well founded ; but alburnous matter is generated with great 

 rapidity within them ; and they become to a very great extent 

 transmuted into perfect roots long before the growth of the stem 

 or branches of the tree commences in the spring ; and by these 

 newly formed roots (but not by these exclusively) I conceive that 

 nutriment is absorbed from the soil and sent up into the leaves, to 

 be there converted into the true sap of the plant. I am aware 

 that the above stated opinions are in opposition to those of many 

 eminent physiologists, to which much deference is due : but I 

 think that they have erroneously included within their Spongioles 

 portions of alburnous fibre, a substance never found in the organ 

 properly called a Spongiole, 



