310 DISPERSION OP SEED. CONCLUSION. 



face of the Pacific Ocean, are speedily covered with a crop of 

 luxuriant vegetation. Birds, too, are very important agents in 

 diffusing the various species of plants ; some of which are scarcely 

 dispersed in any other way. They carry off the whole fruit to 

 a convenient place, and drop the stone when they have eaten the 

 pulp ; or they eat the whole, and the seed, being undigested on 

 account of the hardness of its coats, falls into the ground when 

 voided by them. Some seeds will not readily germinate, until 

 they have undergone this process. When it is considered that 

 from a single seed as many as 30,000 or 40,000 new individuals 

 of some species may be produced in a single year, it will be 

 perceived how abundantly the Creator has provided for the con- 

 tinuance of their race, and how unlikely is their extinction, 

 without some great convulsion of Nature. 



472. The Reproductive System of Vegetables, then, counter- 

 acts in its operation the effects which would otherwise speedily 

 result from the law, which the Creator has impressed on all organ- 

 ized structures ; that law of limited duration, which renders 

 their death and decay as complete a portion of the series of 

 actions they exhibit, as are the wonderful phenomena in which 

 they are concerned during life. By this counterpoise, all limit 

 to the continuance of races is removed, except such as is inter- 

 posed by some causes beyond. The records of the history of the 

 Earth, which are brought to light by an examination of the rocks 

 that appear at its surface, afford abundant evidence, that vast con- 

 vulsions must have formerly occurred, involving the Vegetable as 

 well as the Animal kingdom; and that, at each of these, many 

 races of Plants were utterly destroyed ; so that there is now 

 probably not a single species remaining, of these which first 

 covered the dry land with verdure, when it was lifted from the 

 depths of the ocean by Almighty Power. Such a convulsion will 

 again occur. A time is foretold when " the elements shall melt 

 with fervent heat, and the earth also and the works that are 

 therein shall be burned up." But the immortal soul of Man will 

 survive this general conflagration, and his faculties will receive 

 that full development, for which his present existence is but a 

 state of preparation. 



