JBrlnflitiQ jfortb ffruit 177 



Who thinks to count the seeds in a single head of 

 dandelion or thistle ? What millions of seeds drop 

 from pines, elms, oaks, maples ! 



The spores of the flowerless plants float off in 

 clouds, millions of minute but life-full atoms. How 

 seed}" we consider lemons and oranges ; how very 

 many are the seeds held in the abundant crops of 

 berries and currants ! 



Were seeds not infinite in number the plant-world 

 must perish, seeds being exposed to so many dis- 

 asters. They are destroyed by over-much water, de- 

 caying as they lie in or upon the ground. Exposed, 

 as they frequently are, the tender germ is killed by 

 freezing; hot suns burn and dry the life out of 

 millions more. They are devoured by beasts and 

 insects ; in many seasons almost the entire walnut 

 crop is destroyed by worms, come from eggs depos- 

 ited by an insect mother in the young and tender 

 nuts in their early green state. For several consec- 

 utive years insects will destroy the fruit crop. 



When the seed has finally matured, been pre- 

 served from such mischances, sprouted, sprung up, 

 further accidents await it. Men and beasts may 

 crush it by treading upon it ; beasts eagerly graze 

 upon the new plantlets ; storms and suns may prove 

 as disastrous to the fresh growtli as to the seed. 

 When so many seeds are doomed to perish, a vast 

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