30 PHENOMENA OF PLANT-LIFE. 



nourish and cherish it ; and in order that this deep love 

 may exercise itself in the way most needed, gives at 

 the same moinent the physical power of replenishing 

 the little life from the fountains of her bosom. This 

 rule, in some mode or other, holds throughout the 

 whole extent of organic nature ; and strange as it 

 may seem in the first statement, is not absent even 

 from the plant ; for the seed is the offspring, and, 

 though cast away, often to a long distance from the 

 parent, is still provided for, after the same manner as 

 the tiny suckling ; — the embiyo lies between the pair 

 of nutrient hemispheres, and draws from them the 

 support needed to its fragile existence, and which 

 alone it can make use of. Not until it is somewhat 

 grown, and has become hearty, can it feed indepen- 

 dently on the earth and water which surround it ; not 

 until those beautiful tints of tender green make their 

 appearance, can it live except on the supplies derived 

 immediately from the parent. The production of the 

 fruit or seed of a plant, though in strict agreement 

 with the repetition of an animal of any kind, under 

 the law which has its maximum in parent and child, is 

 thus not exactly equivalent to the birthday of the 

 offspring. The latter, in the plant, truly commences 

 with the process of germination, and may be delayed 

 almost indefinitely. 



The farinaceous matter contained in the seed does 

 not nourish the embryo in the crude form in which we 



