supply of organic matter laid up for it by the mother-plant. It is the decomposition of this organic matter which supplies the force of germination. Chemical compounds are comparatively stable—it requires sunlight to tear them asunder; but organic matter is more easily decomposed—it is almost spontaneously decomposed. It may be that heat (a necessary condition of germination) is the force which determines the decomposition. However this may be, it is certain that a portion of the organic matter laid up in the seed is decomposed, burned up, to form CO2 and H2O, and that this combustion furnishes the force by which the mason-work of tissue-making is accomplished. In other words, of the food laid up in the form of starch, dextrine, protoplasm, a portion is decomposed to furnish the force by which the remainder is organized. Hence the seed always loses weight in germination; it cannot develop unless it is in part consumed; "it is not quickened except it die." This self-consumption continues until the leaves and roots are formed; then it begins to draw force from the sun, and food from the mineral kingdom.
To illustrate: In germination, matter running down from plane No. 3 to plane No. 2 generates force by which other similar matter is moved about and raised to a somewhat higher position on plane No. 3. As water raised by the sun may be stored in reservoirs, and ill running down from these may do work, so matter
