BOOK. OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 25 



readily do they relinquish their charge, and drop 

 off in decay when no longer necessary ! How won- 

 derfully does the fruit, in some classes, envelope 

 and protect the seed till it has arrived at maturity ; 

 and, lastly, what a passing strange piece of orga- 

 nized mechanism is the seed itself, and, being ne- 

 cessary for the reproduction of its species, what a 

 remarkable provision is made for its preservation 

 and succession ! What but the wisdom of a Deity 

 could have devised that those seeds w r hich are most 

 exposed to the ravages of the inhabitants of the 

 forest, should not only be doubly, but some of them 

 trebly enclosed ! that those most in request as arti- 

 cles of food, should be so hardy and abundantly 

 prolific ; and that seeds in general, which are the 

 sport of so many casualties, and exposed to injury 

 from such a variety of accidents, are possessed of a 

 principle of lasting vitality, which makes it indeed 

 no easy matter to deprive them of their fructifying 

 power. Plants are also multiplied and propagated 

 by a variety of ways, which strengthen the provision 

 for their succession. 



Nor is the finger of Providence less visible in the 

 means of diffusing or spreading abroad vegetables, 

 than in the provision made for keeping up their suc- 

 cession. The earth may be said to be full of the 

 goodness of the Lord ; but how comes it to pass, 

 that in parts untrod by man, and on the tops of ru- 

 inous buildings, so many varied specimens of the 

 vegetable creation are to be found ? Is it not from 

 the manner in which Nature's great husbandman 



D 



