164 SEEDS. 



power and wisdom with which they have been 

 designed. Many are covered in the most careful 

 manner, to preserve them from injury, so that they 

 may be thrown about without doing them any 

 harm. The pulpy part of apples, pears, and 

 plums, which forms such grateful fruit, is nothing 

 but seed coverings, and meant to nourish the seeds 

 when they fall to the ground. Other seeds, as 

 beans or peas, are shut up in ,pods, or shells ; 

 others, as nuts, plums, and apricots, are enclosed 

 in a wooden shell ; others are furnished with a 

 ' bitter rind to preserve them from the ravages of 

 insects ; and others, as the oat and grass seeds, have 

 a thick and tough membrane as a coating. 



When seeds are sown, after a time, a number of 

 delicate roots spring from one end, and a green 

 sprout, or bud, from the other. What is very 

 singular about the vegetating or growing of seeds 

 is, that in whatever direction they may happen 

 to fall, the root always strikes downwards, and the 

 bud which contains the rudiments of the future 

 plant appears above the surface. This is a beauti- 

 ful provision of Providence, for if every seed 

 required to be placed in its proper position, there 

 would be no possibility of sowing grain. As it is, 

 however, if a seed fall with the root-end upper- 

 most, when the fibres have grown a little distance, 

 they turn downwards, and the sprout which was 

 growing into the soil turns upwards, and makes 

 its way into the air. Those seeds which are shut 

 up in hard cases, as nuts, when the sprout begins 



