40 ON THE SEED. 



Mrs. B. So nature designed it, but art converts the 

 greater part of this coarser sort of food into nourishment 

 for a superior order of beings. In peas and beans it is 

 the fleshy cotyledons that we eat ; in corn it is the albu- 

 men of the seed which supplies us with bread. 



Caroline. But in peas and beans it is the seed itself 

 we eat, not the cotyledons ? 



Mrs. B. The cotyledons form the principal part of 

 the seed ; of those, at least, which have no albumen. If, 

 instead of eating them when young, we allowed them to 

 ripen and germinate, the pea and the bean would sep- 

 arate into two parts, and assume the form of cotyledons. 



Emily. We then rob the young plant of its destined 

 food ? 



Mrs. B. No doubt we do. If corn were not reaped, 

 the grain would fall into the ground, and, there germina- 

 ting, the albumen of the seed would be expended in 

 nourishing the young plants ; but when these plants 

 struck root, the soil would be unable to maintain a crop 

 so thickly sown: many seeds would perish for want of 

 food, and the rest, being but imperfectly supplied, few or 

 none would come to perfection. Man, therefore, de- 

 serves no reproach, even from the vegetable kingdom, 

 when he scatters the seed in such quantity only as the soil 

 can nourish, and reserves the remainder for his own use. 



Emily. It appears to me surprising, that the embryo 

 plant, after having been in an active state of vegetation 

 while the seed remained within the flower and the fruit, 

 should become, as it were, dormant when the seed is 

 mature, and separated from the plant ; nay, should often 

 remain so for a long period of time. 



Mrs. B. The principle of life, it is true, can be pre- 

 served in some seeds a great number of years ; but what 

 that living state is, which so nearly resembles death, we 

 cannot explain. It is time, however, for us to rouse the 

 inactive seed from its torpid state, and examine it, when 

 it enters into a new existence, as a separate and inde- 

 pendent being. 



1309. To what higher purposes is this nourishment converted, and 

 what are instances of it"? 1310. Caroline asks, if in peas and beans, 

 we do not eat the seed itself what is the answer to her question! 

 1311. If corn were not reaped, what would be the consequences to the 

 vegetable kingdom! 1312. What appears surprising to Emily? 

 1313. What does Mrs. B. say of the principle of life in seeds! 1314. 

 In what state does she now suppose the seed! 



