ON VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 79 



If seeds were to fall into the ground merely by 

 dropping down from the plant, from thus being 

 collected in a mass, either the fermentative pro- 

 cess would take place and decomposition and 

 decay be the consequence, or such a partial 

 vegetation would be produced, as would render 

 a large surface of the globe destitute of verdure 

 and of the supplies so essential to animal life ; 

 while the atmosphere, from numerous decompo- 

 sitions on the one hand, and from a deficiency 

 of the renovating principle on the other, would 

 lose its purity, and be no longer fit for the pur- 

 poses for which it was created. But Providence 

 has wisely ordered it otherwise. For in the place 

 of this partial distribution, it is so arranged that 

 this, like every other part of the creation, shall 

 be subordinate to the rest ; and that each shall 

 take its respective share in contributing to the 

 benefit of the whole. Thus in the vegetable world 

 where each portion of it, from its contruction, is 

 rendered helpless and incapable of extending it- 

 self beyond the spot which first gave it existence; 

 the sources of propagation, by a very curious me- 

 chanism in some instances, and through a variety 

 of mediums in others, are made to distribute them- 

 selves in all those directions which can render their 

 perpetuation useful or necessary. Thus in some, 

 the seed vessel is made to burst its integuments 

 with an elastic jerk, by which its seed is thrown 

 with violence to a considerable distance. Others 



