33 
GARDENING AS A SCIENCE. 
No. II.— VEGETABLE DEVELOPMENTS. 
"While we profess to look for truth as the foundation of all theory, and 
repudiate, as inimical to scientific research, that simple credence which takes for 
granted the mere dicta of authorities, we must not lose sight of system and 
arrangement. Having investigated the phenomena of germination, our present 
inquiry will be directed to the order which nature appears to pursue in effecting the 
development of plants according to the rank which they severally occupy. 
It is a position laid down in Tjindleys Theory of Horticulture^ that, germina- 
tion being established, by means therein described, " all the parts enlarge, and new 
parts are created at the expense of a mucilaginous saccharine secretion, which the 
germinating seed possesses the power of forming." 
" The root being the organ through which food is conveyed from the earth 
into the plant, is the part which is soonest developed," — pp. 10, 11. 
Of the general truth and accuracy of the order thus assumed, no one will 
intimate a doubt ; but of the creation of new parts, — of the expression so 
employed, — we are jealous. The term embryo^ however we apply it, expresses 
a being formed and existing ; minute, indeed, as the veriest atom of which the 
mind can form any conception, but still real. We therefore presume that those 
electro-chemical disturbances which precede and accompany the development of the 
radicle do not create it ; that they, indeed, separate a quantity of carbon from the 
substances which constituted the dry, unexcited seed, and propel it either in the 
form of carbonic acid or of some hydro-carbon into that " organism " which we 
call the root, and " which first begins to move by lengthening all its parts and 
protruding itself beyond the seed-coats into the earth." But though they thus 
introduce the matter or substance of woody fibre into the root, they only convey 
nutriment, which, by assimilation, under the influence of the living principle, 
causes extension of bulk, but exerts no creative power. 
The protrusion of roots is very conveniently observed in a hyacinth grown in a 
glass. At first, around the basal ring of the bulb a few protuberances are 
observed : these gradually elongate, become white, and each process, now called 
a root, is furnished at its point with a spongy substance, that conveys a correct 
idea of that organic tissue called by botanists a spongiole^ and which they conceive 
to be the chief medium of absorption. 
During the growth of these roots, and their terminating spongelets, the leaves 
and flower-stem make little discernible advances. At length, however, they 
develop, and go through their usual stages of progress. But can any one for a 
moment believe that creation of parts takes place during the growth and flowering 
of a hyacinth in a glass of water ? In the first place, if we refer to high authority 
VOL. IX. NO. XCVIII. F 
