242 SYLVAN WINTER. 



pulp, the hard shelly substance called the stone, 

 and inside that the kernel, itself enwrapped in 

 brown skin. In the apple, pear, strawberry, 

 gooseberry, orange, and other soft-bodied fruits, 

 a mass of sweet, soft substance encloses the more 

 or less hard or horny covering of the seed-germs. 



Endless are the shades of colour, and endless 

 are the markings of seeds — red, black, purple, 

 green — spotted, splashed, and veined ; and within, 

 the seed sleeps until the awakening forces of 

 warmth and moisture in the succeeding spring 

 set in motion the complex and exquisitely 

 beautiful machinery which, with subtle mystery, 

 fashions stem and radicle, leaves, flowers, and 

 fruit. 



How perfect is the protection afforded to the 

 beautiful life within the seed-envelope is scarcely 

 apprehended by those who regard a dormant seed 

 as merely a tiny, dingy-coloured, and insignificant 

 thing. Nature adapts her processes to suit her 

 particular needs, and hence it is that the coverings 

 she fashions are so various. The seeds which, 

 like those of the Pines, are produced by trees 

 which grow in the roughest and wildest parts of 



