CHAPTER IV. 



REPRODUCTION OF PLANTS. 

 55. 



THE reproduction of plants from seed is the 

 chief object of all those wonderful organs, 

 a description of which will now be given, and it 

 would be difficult if not impossible to find in 

 the whole of the beautiful world around us, any 

 thing more admirable than the organization by 

 which that object is attained ; while the parts 

 are, in many instances, so minute as to require 

 the assistance of the microscope to discover 

 them at all. It has been said above, that the 

 chief office of that lovely portion of the vege- 

 table kingdom, the flowers which glow like gems 

 in our sight, is to reproduce the species; but it 

 would be ingratitude to assert that they have no 

 other end to answer. The mere purpose of re- 

 production might doubtless have been effected 

 with no beauty to charm the eye, but it pleased 

 Him who made that exquisite organ, also to 



