AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 135 



the grain begins to swell, to gather richness from 

 the parent stalk, till it gleams in southern fields 

 with the softness of the pearl, and in the north with 

 the yellow of the topaz and gold. ~No parent, with 

 the wisdom of man, can more perfectly provide for 

 its young, than the trees of our forests and the 

 grasses of our fields for the young plant in every 

 seed they mature. If by chance the grain of pollen 

 fails to reach the seed, no germ of life is there, no 

 food is needed and none is garnered up; the tree 

 never mistakes and collects food where its own 

 young is not present to feed upon it. 



And when the seed is formed there is still 

 another care, that it may find its proper place of 

 growth; the means are fitted to the need of the 

 plant. To one seed are given wings that it may fly 

 away, the crane's-bill scatters its seed with a curi- 

 ous spring, the thistle rises on its fringed balloon, 

 and others cling to every passer-by and thus are 

 scattered over the earth. And when that seed has 

 germinated, every leaf has a thousand mouths to 

 drink in the gases from the air, a thousand points 

 below the surface of the earth to gather materials 



