96 PROBLEMS STILL UNSETTLED. [CHAP. iv. 



surface. But I shall vvofully have failed in my object 

 if I have given the impression that we know all about 

 seeds. On the contrary, there is not a fruit or a 

 seed, even of one of our commonest plants, which 

 would not amply justify and richly reward the most 

 careful study. 



In this, as in other branches of science, we have 

 but made a beginning. We have learnt just enough 

 to perceive how little we know. Our great masters 

 in natural history have immortalised themselves by 

 their discoveries, but they have not exhausted the 

 field ; and if seeds and fruits cannot vie with flowers 

 in the brilliance and colour with which they decorate 

 our gardens and our fields, still they surely rival, it 

 would be impossible to excel, them, in the almost 

 infinite variety of the problems they present to us, 

 the ingenuity, the interest, and the charm of the 

 beautiful contrivances which they offer for our study 

 and our admiration. 



