ON MILDEW, OR MELDEW. 
39 
Wheat and other plants, when they have acquired their full 
growth, commence the interesting business of perfecting their 
seeds, in order to perpetuate their kind ; and then nature 
brings all her powers into requisition to effect this remarkable 
process. The vessels of the plant are distended with the pro- 
per fluid making its way to the seed-vessel, which has been 
duly prepared to receive it, which is there deposited in the 
form of a milky juice, when the water, which has been the 
vehicle for its conveyance, is discharged through exhaling 
vessels into the atmosphere, and another supply from the 
same source is constantly in the rear, to be disposed of in a 
similar manner ; and so the process goes on — provided there 
is no unfortunate interruption from external causes — till each 
grain is filled with farina, when, the great work being com- 
pleted, the circulation ceases to be carried on, and the whole 
is dried and hardened for preservation. 
When this process is going forward, it will be perceived 
that a vast proportional quantity of water must be constantly 
discharged into the atmosphere, otherwise, space would not 
exist in the hull of the grain for additional supplies of the di- 
luted nutriment, which is continually arriving at its destined 
depository ; but should the atmosphere at this critical period 
unfortunately be saturated or surcharged with moisture, as 
has been before hinted, it will be unable to take up and carry 
away that which the grain must necessarily part with, and 
which is now an incumbrance to it, in order to make room for 
an additional supply of the fluid which would increase the de- 
posit of farina. This inability of the air to take up an addi- 
tional load of moisture, under the circumstances of its previ- 
ous saturation, prevents it also from carrying off the heat 
from the w T heat, so that the temperature of the whole plant is 
increased much above the proper standard of its healthy ac- 
tion ; for the temperature of plants" that transpire moisture 
freely is constantly kept many degrees cooler than the sur- 
rounding atmosphere, or bodies destitute of vital action. This 
retention of excrementitious moisture suspends the circula- 
tion, for it can't move unless it can get vent, and that and the 
