232 JJATURAL THEOLOGY. 



cases tlie purpose is fulfilled within a just and limited de- 

 gree. We can perceive, that if the seeds of plants were 

 more strongly guarded than they are, their greater security 

 would interfere with other uses. Many species of animals 

 would suffer, and many perish, if they could not obtain ac- 

 cess to them. The plant would overrun the soil, or the seed 

 be .wasted for want of room to sow itself. It is sometimes 

 as necessary to destroy particular species of plants, as it is 

 at other times to encourage their growth. Here, as in many 

 cases, a balance is to be maintained between opposite uses. 

 The provisions for the preservation of seeds appear to be 

 directed chiefly against the inconstancy of the elements, oi 

 the sweeping destruction of inclement seasons. The depre- 

 dation of animals and the injuries of accidental violence are 

 allowed for in the abundance of the increase. The result is, 

 that out of the many thousand different plants which cover 

 the earth, not a single species, perhaps, has been lost since 

 the creation. 



When nature has perfected her seeds, her next care is 

 to disperse them. The seed cannot answer its purpose 

 while it remains confined in the capsule. After the seeds 

 therefore are ripened, the pericarpium opens to let them out ; 

 and the opening is not like an accidental bursting, but for 

 the most part, is according to a certain rule in each plant. 

 What I have always thought very extraordinary, nuts and 

 shells which we can hardly crack with our teeth, divide and 

 make v/ay for the little tender sprout which proceeds from 

 the kernel. Handling the nut, I could hardly conceive how 

 the plantule was ever to get out of it. There are cases, it 

 is said, in which the seed-vessel, by an elastic jerk at the 

 moment of its explosion, casts the seeds to a distance. Wo 

 all however know, that many seeds — those of most composite 

 flowers, as of the thistle, dandelion, etc. — are endowed with 

 what are not improperly called ivings ; that is, doAvny ap- 

 pendages, by which they are enabled to float in the air, and 

 are carried oftentimes by the wind to great distances from 



