CHAPTER XX 



THE COSMIC ADAPTATION OF THE SEED 



Intro- The physics of seeds ought to be a subject of deep interest, if 



^^ °^^' only from the circumstance that whilst the seeds, generally 



speaking, can live or retain their vitality in any climate, the 



parent plant is as a rule rigidly restricted in this respect. The 



fact that the seed is less specialised for terrestrial conditions 



The seed is than the parent plant is one of the first suggestions that nature 



ised and less offers to US when we approach the consideration of seeds from 



than^the"^^ the cosmic standpoint. It is one of the purposes of this 



plant. chapter to extend this distinction by showing that seeds might 



live on a planet where conditions destructive for the parent 



plant prevail. Where the discussion appears disconnected and 



inconsistent, the defect is usually due to the circumstance that 



I have here strung together notes and ideas jotted down 



generally during botanical rambles in the last four years. To 



endeavour to adjust some of them would be to displace others, 



so I have preferred to let them stand, feeling assured that in 



the opening up of new ground of this sort the reader will be 



to my faults a little blind. 



It was the behaviour of the seed of Guilandina bonducella in 

 the oven and in the balance that first led me into these specula- 

 tions. The spectacle of a plant-embryo living its own life in 

 its hermetically sealed case and irresponsive to outside con- 

 ditions seemed to offer a near approach to an unconditioned 

 existence on this planet. Though crude and only partly true, 

 this notion proved to be very suggestive ; and I came to see 



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