GERMINATION OF THE SEED. 
123 
for the first time, how gloomy would be the prospect ! How 
little should we expect its return to life and beauty, and fra- 
grance. No power short of Omnipotence could effect such 
wonders. But we are now so accustomed to these changes, 
that “ seeing we perceive not.” We do not think of the Mighty 
Worker of these miracles ; we call them the operations of na- 
ture. And what is nature or what are the laws of nature, but 
manifestations of the Almighty ? We are liable to be led into 
scepticism by the word nature, which being so vague in its 
meaning, may signify any thing, and thus we gradually accus- 
tom ourselves to affix to it no meaning at all. 
How beautifully is this reanimation of the vegetable world 
brought by St. Paul, as an illustration of our resurrection from 
the dead. The same power which from a small, dry, and appa- 
rently dead seed, can bring forth a fresh and beautiful plant, 
can also, from the ruins of our mortal bodies, produce a new 
and glorious body, and unite it to the immortal spirit by ties never 
to be separated. 
Germination. (See plate IX.) The process of the shooting 
forth of the seed is termed germination. The principle of life 
contained in the seed does not usually become active until the seed 
is placed in circumstances favorable to vegetation. When a 
seed is committed to the bosom of the earth, its various parts 
soon begin to dilate by absorbing moisture. A chemical action 
then commences ; oxygen from the air unites to the carbon of 
the seed and carries it off in the form of carbonic acid gas. As 
the carbon of the cotyledons by the process continues to dimin- 
ish, and oxygen is produced in excess, a sweet sugar-like substance 
is formed ; this is conveyed to the embryo, which by this new 
nourishment is kindled into active life; and from this period we 
may date the commencement of the existence of the young 
plant. Bursting through the coats which surrounded it, and 
which are already enfeebled by their loss of carbon, the embryo 
emerges from its prison, the radicle shoots downward, and the 
■plume rises upwards. We say then that the seed has come up or 
sprouted. The radicle, or descending root, is usually the first 
to break through the coats of the seeds ; it commences its jour- 
ney downwards, to seek in the earth nourishment for the future 
plant, and to fix it firmly in the earth. This constitutes the 
root and always takes a downward course in whatever situation 
the seed may have been placed in the ground. A botanist once 
planted in a pot, six acorns, with the points of their embryos 
upwards. At the end of two months, upon removing the earth, 
R^ animation of the vegetable world — Germination— Principle of life in 
the seed — Effect of chemical action — The embryo bursts its prison — 
