22S PROSERPINA. 



easy and abundant multiplicability, becomes the primal 

 treasure of human economy. 



3. It has been the practice of botanists of all nations 

 to consider the seeds of the grasses together with those 

 of roses and pease, as if all could be described on the 

 same principles, and with the same nomenclature of 

 parts. But the grain of corn is a quite distinct thing 

 from the seed of pease. In it, the husk and the seed 

 envelope have become inextricably one. All the ex- 

 ocarps, endocarps, epicarps, mesocarps, shells, husks, 

 sacks, and skins, are woven at once together into the 

 brown bran ; and inside of that, a new substance is col- 

 lected for us, which is not what we boil in pease, or 

 poach in eggs, or munch in nuts, or grind in coffee ; but 

 a thing which, mixed with water and then baked, has 

 given to all the nations of the world their prime word 

 for food, in thought and prayer, Bread ; their prime 

 conception of the man's and woman's labor in preparing 

 it (" whoso putteth hand to the plough " two women 

 shall be grinding at the mill) their prime notion of the 

 means of cooking by fire ("which to-day is, and to- 

 morrow is cast into the oven"), and their prime notion 

 of culinary office the ' i chief baker , ' ' cook, or pastry- 

 cook, (compare Bedreddin Plassan in the Arabian 

 Nights) : and, finally, to modern civilization, the Saxon 

 word ' lady,' with whatever it imports. 



4. It has also been the practice of botanists to confuse 

 all the ripened products of plants under the general term 



