Author : Alfred Allen
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9780267862719
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (627 download)
Book Synopsis The Scientific Enquirer, Vol. 3 by : Alfred Allen
Download or read book The Scientific Enquirer, Vol. 3 written by Alfred Allen and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2018-02-05 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Scientific Enquirer, Vol. 3: A Monthly Medium for the Supply of Information on All Scientific Subjects There need be little difficulty in accounting for the presence of dormant seeds in the soil. Let it be granted that at one time some given species were common in a district through the exhaus tion of the soil, however, they gradually died out, that is, a smaller number of plants appeared. This could only have arisen from the fact that a smaller number of seeds germinated; there would, therefore, be left a number of seeds capable of germinating, and only waiting for suitable conditions to enable them to do so. Most of the seeds which did not germinate, and remained at the surface, would undergo the ordinary process of decay. Many, however, would find their way to greater depths, some of them being washed down by water, others, and I think the greater num ber, would fall into the numerous cracks which are found on most lands after continued dry weather, a not uncommon condition in autumn. The mere fact that this cracking process takes place most abundantly in the fruiting season renders this hypothesis, at least, highly probable. On the return of wet weather the cracks would close up, and the seeds would be preserved until the soil was turned over. Their germination would be prevented by the exclusion of air and light, and for the same reason they would not undergo decay. One difficulty is, that under ordinary conditions seeds only retain their power of germinating for limited periods, but under the conditions which hold here, I think it not by any means improbable that they will retain their vitality for much longer periods. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
