238 The Great World's Farm 



generally grows less and less the longer it is left unburied. 

 When the life has died out of it wholly, it still looks much 

 the same as before, at least to the unpracticed eye. 



As to living seed, if it be one that we know, we can 

 tell at a glance what sort of plant bore it, and what plant 

 will spring from it. But if it is a seed that we do not 

 know? 



Well, even then we may be able to tell by the look of 

 it what family it belongs to, whether it is starchy or oily, 

 whether it will have two seed-leaves, like a bean, or one, 

 like corn. But our knowledge will not carry us much 

 further. In many cases it will not even tell us whether 

 the forthcoming plant will be a tree, or a shrub, or a 

 lowly herb. To the inexperienced, many of the smaller 

 seeds especially look very much alike; and there is cer- 

 tainly no such difference in their appearance as would lead 

 one to guess at the great variety of plants which will 

 spring from them ; and even the wisest knows very little 

 about the why and the wherefore of the matter. 



For why should the small seed of the elm produce a 

 tall tree, and the large seed of the gourd only a short- 

 lived, weak-stemmed, creeping plant? Why should one 

 bean grow to the height of a few inches only, and another 

 climb up several feet? Why, again, should an acorn 

 always produce an oak, and not some other tree? All 

 that we can answer is, an acorn has oak-life in it. But 

 we might as well say we don't know, for all the light this 

 throws upon the subject. 



Look now at these seed-pods and seeds. We may 

 know that they have been taken from plants of the great 

 cabbage family; but the family likeness is so strong 

 between them that we should probably be puzzled to say 



