Conversations on vegetable physiology ; comprehending the elements of botany, with their application to agriculture / Mrs. Marcet.

  • Marcet, Mrs. (Jane Haldimand), 1769-1858.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Conversations on vegetable physiology ; comprehending the elements of botany, with their application to agriculture / Mrs. Marcet. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    51/492 (page 15)
    observations will, I hope, prepare you for our next in- terview ; when I propose to take a full-grown p)lant, examine its structure, and explain the nature of those organs hy which it is nourished and preserved. AV^e shall begin with the roots, and then proceed up the stem to the leaves and flowers. EMILY, I should have expected that you would have com- menced hy the birth of the plant j that is to say, the germination of the seed. ]ims. B. If the plant derives life from the seed, the seed equally owes its origin to the parent plant; and as the preparation of the seed, hy that beautiful and delicate system of organs, the flower, is one of the most curious and complicated operations of the vegetable economy, I think it will he better to reserve it for the latter part of our studies. CAROLINE. That is very true so far as regards the formation of the seed ; but its bursting, and the sprouting of the young plant, appears to he the natural commencement of the history of vegetation. MRS. B. The germination of the seed is a process so intimately connected with its formation and composition, that it is a reciprocal advantage to treat of them together, or, rather, in immediate succession, instead of sejiarating them hy the intervention of the whole history of vege- tation.