10 WILD FLOWERS 



gone, since Adam first looked out on the flowers 

 of Eden. 



The wonderful fertility of plants in the 

 immense number of seeds which they produce, 

 and the plans by which they are scattered, 

 affords another remarkable instance of goodness 

 and skill. Sharon Turner states that "a 

 common scarlet bean yielded a hundred pods, 

 with five full formed beans in each; making in 

 such stalks, from three to five hundred from 

 the single bean sown." What is the end of all 

 these numerous seeds ? "Why this profusion ? 

 Is it that five hundred plants may be pro- 

 duced by each one, and so the earth be over- 

 run with a luxuriant vegetation, that man may 

 find no room for himself and his home ? No. 

 The great Creator has provided the seeds, not 

 only for the reproduction of the plant, but for 

 the food of man and animals, and for the birds ; 

 yea, even for the meanest. " He giveth to the 

 beast his food, and to the young ravens which 

 cry." He, in preparing for their wants, 

 knew how many of his creatures should live 

 upon seeds : how the corn should be even the 

 very staff of life ; how the apple, and the cherry, 

 and a thousand other fruits, in which the seeds 

 lie embedded, should refresh his frame, and 

 gratify his appetite : how the silky thistle-down 

 and the black ivy-berry should give food for 

 the birds, and how " the cattle upon a thousand 

 hills " should be nourished by the grass of his 

 fields. He knew that the rains would destroy 

 many seeds ; that many would be blown bv the 



