66 EVOLUTION OF LIFE. 



One single plant of elecampane will frequently 

 produce, in one season, three thousand seeds ; 

 the poppy, three thousand four hundred ; the 

 sun-flower, four thousand ; the tobacco plant 

 has been known to bring to maturity forty 

 thousand three hundred and twenty seeds. 

 The astonishing power, with which God has 

 endued the vegetable creation, to multiply its 

 different species, is more particularly manifest- 

 ed in the elm. It is observed by a learned 

 commentator and critic,* that the elm produces 

 upwards of one thousand five hundred millions 

 of seeds, each of these seeds having the power 

 of producing the same number. How astonish- 

 ing is this produce ! At first, one seed is de- 

 posited in the earth ; from this one, a tree 

 springs, which, in the course of its vegetative 

 life, produces one thousand five hundred and 

 eighty-four millions of seeds, this is theirs* 

 generation. The second generation will amount 

 to two trillions, five hundred and ten thousand, 

 and fifty-six billions. The third generation 

 will amount to fourteen thousand six hundred 

 and fifty-eight quadrillions, seven hundred and 

 twenty-seven thousand, and forty trillions ! And 

 the fourth generation from these, would amount 

 to fifty-one sextillions, four hundred, and eighty- 

 ty-one thousand three hundred and eighty-one 



* Dr. CLARKE'S Commentary on Gen. i. 12. 



