the Radicle and Germen of Seeds, ioj! 
to prevent the ingress of any body capable of impeding the 
motion of the wheels. 
The water being then admitted, the wheels performed 
something more than 150 revolutions in a minute ; and the 
position of the seeds relative to the earth was of course as 
often perfectly inverted, within the same period of time ; by 
which I conceive that the influence of gravitation must have 
been wholly suspended. 
In a few days the seeds began to germinate, and as the 
truth of some of the opinions I had communicated to you, and 
of many others which I had long entertained, depended on 
the result of the experiment, I watched its progress with 
some anxiety, though not with much apprehension ; and I 
had soon the pleasure to see that the radicles, in whatever 
direction they were protruded from the position of the seed* 
turned their points outwards from the circumference of the 
wheel, and in their subsequent growth receded nearly at right 
angles from its axis. The germens, on the contrary, took 
the opposite direction, and in a few days their points all met 
in the centre of the wheel. Three of these plants were suf- 
fered to remain on the wheel, and were secured to its spokes 
to prevent their being shaken oft' by its motion. The stems 
of these plants soon extended beyond the centre of the wheel : 
but the same cause, which first occasioned them to approach 
its axis, still operating, their points returned and met again at 
its centre. 
The motion of the wheel being in this experiment vertical, 
the radicle and germen of every seed occupied, during a 
minute portion of time in each revolution, precisely the same 
position they would have assumed had the seeds vegetated at 
