XIX. 



CHANCES OF LIFE 



Of all the wonderful things in nature, surely a seed is 

 one of the most wonderful. How dead and helpless 

 it looks ; how very little it tells us about itself, and yet 

 how very much is wrapped up in it ! Seeds, especially 

 small seeds from the same plant, look just as much 

 alike as grains of sand. Indeed, peas have become 

 proverbial ; and we say * as much alike as peas in a 

 pod,' when we mean that things, or people, are quite 

 without individual character. 



And yet each seed, even the smallest and most dust- 

 like, has a character of its own — a character which 

 distinguishes it not merely from other seeds of different 

 famihes, but a character which distinguishes it also 

 from all its nearest relations, even from those which 

 grew in the same pod with it. 



Probably it is only want of sight which prevents our 

 seeing the difference between one seed and another, 

 for certainly even the most careless observer will 

 admit that he has never yet found two perfectly 

 identical plants. Not even two peas, taken from the 

 same pod, will grow up precisely alike. 



But as long as the seed is kept from its natural bed 



