DESIGN IN THE PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF SEEDS 417 



conducive to migration, and the winds also resulting therefrom have erroneously come to be looked upon as the 

 cause for such movements. 



"Fmally, the investigation of certain movements, namely, the emigrations, has presented exceptional diffi- 

 culties, due chiefly to the fact that they are habitually performed under conditions which enshroud them in all but 

 complete obscurity. The reason for this is that, with few exceptions, emigration is undertaken during the hours 

 of darlmess, and thus entirely escapes notice at the place of embarkation. It was the object of investigating 

 this phase in the phenomenon of migration that led me to visit the Eddystone, where it was possible to observe these 

 emigrants immediately after their departure from our shores. There I found that at least 90 per cent, of the various 

 emigrants crossed the Channel during the night. Indeed, night movements are undoubtedly the rule when con- 

 siderable expanses of sea have to be traversed. To this rule the chief exception has already been mentioned : but 

 both at the lighthouse and at the lightship I found that day migration was confined to a few species only." 



§ 85. Design as seen in the Production and Distribution of Seeds. 



The production and distribution of seeds is a wide and fundamental subject. In the simplest plants and 

 animals every part of their substance possesses the properties and powers of the whole, and any part thrown off 

 or broken oil is capable of independent existence. Certain plants and animals can be cut into pieces, or portions 

 detached, and yet propagate themselves. Eeproduction is effected by simple fission or sphtting. It is also 

 effected by budding, where a portion of the original individual is extruded and thrown off at particular periods ; 

 the bud or portion thrown off possessing in a latent form the properties and powers of the parent. 



It is only in the higher and highest plants and animals that germs, seeds, and eggs make their appearance. 



As plants and animals can have no existence as apart from life conferred, so the higher and highest plants and 

 animals can have no existence, as apart from seeds or ova of some kind. The possession of seeds, or their equivalents, 

 is as fundamental as the possession of fife, and each seed produces only its own kind. The seeds never become 

 accidentally mixed up. A fig-tree is never produced from the fruit of a thorn or other tree, and the fish, reptile, 

 bird, and mammal are, in every instance, the product of specific eggs, seeds, or ova of some land. There are 

 boundaries to seeds as to everything else. The power of producing seeds is an original endowment, and the very 

 essence of life in its higher forms. Life, under all circumstances, is the starting-point of plants and animals, and 

 the power of reproduction by means of germs, seeds, and eggs is necessary to the continuation of the higher hfe 

 on the earth. Only the healthy and vigorous plants and animals are capable of producing seed. Not only is the 

 seed- producing power conferred, but the most extraordinary precautions are taken for its continuation. Thus, seeds 

 are produced in incalculable numbers, in many cases in millions. As a matter of fact seeds, eggs, and the immature 

 young form a very large portion of the food-supply of animals. 



The ova and the countless young fishes which frequent the rivers, lakes, and seas yield a practically unhmited 

 food-supply for the finny tribes generally ; berries, nuts, and fruits form the chief sustenance of birds ; while seed- 

 bearing and other grasses constitute the chief pabulum of the herbivora. 



The young of terrestrial animals bulk largely in the food of the carnivora. Man, as an omnivorous animal, eats 

 fish, fowl, and the herbivora indiscriminately. He eats everything (the carnivora excepted), and it is impossible 

 to indicate to what extent he benefits by the arrangement, as he lays not only the young, but the middle-aged, and 

 even the old, under contribution. He draws his food-supply indirectly from spores, germs, seeds, and eggs, which, 

 as explained, are enormously in excess of mere reproductive requirements. 



The fruits, seeds, and eggs are, in many cases, delicately flavoured and tempting. They consist of starches, 

 albumen, proteids, &c., and contain, in many instances, the most delicious juices, as witness those of the apple, 

 pine-apple, lemon, orange, loquat, peach, nectarine, grape, &c. These no doubt are cultivated fruits, but the same 

 holds true of wild fruits, as the raspberry, bramble, wild strawberry, &c. The cereals have each their particular 

 flavours and properties. The cultivated fruits, as a rule, furnish a more dehcate flavour, but in certain cases the 

 wild flavour excels the cultivated one. 



Each individual seed is provided with its own pabalum, on which it subsists until it develops sufiiciently to 

 obtain other food. The seed is as dependent on its envelope, or food covering, as the individual is on the seed. 

 The seed is, in a sense, at once the progenitor and support of the individual. 



The fact that all seeds are invested with a covering of food affords a crowning proof of design, as it means 

 support to the seed itself and support to the organic kingdom as a whole, directly or indirectly. The exigencies 

 of the seed, the individual, and the race are all provided for. Design is also manifested in the distribution of seeds. 

 They are literally thrown broadcast, by the winds and waters, and by animals of all kinds. Insects take a prominent 

 part in the fructification of plants, and birds and other animals carry seeds to great distances. The inorganic 

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