Q4. LIFE OF A TREE. 
posite to each other as can be conceived possible, 
is it not somewhat astonishing that in four words 
we can tell the composition of them all? With- 
out exception, then, all seeds are made up of 
four different substances: Carbon, Hydrogen, 
Oxygen, and Nitrogen,—the latter in minute 
quantities. These substances do not exist sepa- 
rately, but are combined together, some of them 
uniting to form what we call starch; some to 
form the vegetable tissue which enters into the 
husk of the seed, and some to form what is called 
gluten. Thus starch, vegetable tissue, and gluten 
are the three components of all seeds, and they 
are made up of four simple elements, which we 
have just named. A little experiment will prove 
the presence of these ingredients in a seed. If 
the reader will procure a little of the flour out 
of which brown bread is made, he will find it full 
of little scales of bran, which are of a light brown 
colour. By throwing it on a fine sieve, the bran 
may be separated, and the flour falls through. 
This bran is the outer husk of the seed, and is 
composed of vegetable tissue,—thus one of the 
ingredients of a seed has been found out. Now, 
by mixing the sifted flour with a little water, it 
