( 21 ) 
developed by cell-division and multiplication into the embryo. 
As a further step, nutrient matter is deposited either within or 
around this embryo, and then the ovule is said to have become a 
seed, at which time, it consists of a nucleus or kernel, with, as a 
rule, two coats, the nucleus being made up of the embryo alone, 
or of this with nutrient matter about it, generally granules of 
starch in the mesh of a cellular structure. 
The seed contains living matter in the form of its embryo, and 
this is a strange instance of a dormant or potential and not actual 
life, for the embryo may remain for years apparently unchanged 
and inactive, and yet awaken into vigorous life when surrounded 
by the conditions which its activity requires, viz., moisture, free 
oxygen, and warmth. It has been found that forty-live years is 
about the extreme limit of the period through which a seed may 
preserve its vitality, the longevity, so to speak, varying greatly for 
different varieties of seeds. The statement that wheat-grains 
found entombed with Egyptian mummies have been planted and 
caused to grow seems to have no satisfactory foundation. 
The seed being supplied with the proper conditions, the germ 
or embyro continues to develope, the process of germination be¬ 
gins. The starch about the germ is converted into dextrine and 
glucose, which being freelv soluble in water, as the starch was 
not, are now absorbed by the cells of the embvro and utilized as 
food, whereby these protoplasmic cells enlarge and then multiply. 
In this wav, the stemlet lengthens, the cotyledons unfold and 
enlarge, and a rootlet begins to form-. The stemlet soon raises 
the seed-leaves above the surface of the soil, which then are 
spread out in the sunlight and air, and, from this time, the 
plantlet is able to support itself by materials obtained from soil 
and air, whereas, before the emergence of the seed-leaves into the 
sunlight, the abundance of food about the root, even il absorbed, 
could not be assimilated bv the plant, the process of digestion 
being effected in the leaves, through the influence of the so-called 
actinic or cliemic rays of the sun. 
Having traced the development of life in the higher plants, as 
far as time will permit, let us look at the processes of earl}’ life 
in a lower and higher animal form. 
The protozoa, or low r est of animals, like the lowest plants. 
