198 Seeds. 



A sweet red rose, on its bending thorn, 



Its bud was newly spreading; 

 And the glowing effulgence of early morn 



Its beams on its breast was shedding. 



The petals were heavy with dripping tears, 

 That twinkled in pearly brightness ; 



And the thrush in its covert filled my ears 

 With a varied song of lightness. 



A lily, in mantle of purest snow, 



Hung o'er the silent fountain, 

 And the wave, in its calm and quiet flow, 

 Displayed its silken leaves below, 



Like the drift on the windy mountain : 



It bowed with the moisture the night had wept, 



When the stars shone over the billow, 

 And white-winged spirits their vigils kept, 

 Where beauty and innocence sweetly slept 

 On its pure and thornless pillow. 



Seeds. 



The best definition we have yet seen of a seed, is that which 

 considers it a germ situated at the axilla of a leaf; which last, 

 besides covering it, is often of a fleshy consistence to afford sus- 

 tenance to the embryo while germinating, resembling the yolk of 

 an egg which gives a store of nutriment to the young chick. In 

 many cases, as in the farinaceous tribe, we use the albumen, 

 as it is called, to nourish ourselves. They are of different forms 

 in different species, and produced in such abundance that were 

 not myriads destroyed every year, they would soon overrun the 

 globe; and also of various colors. Fig. 28 shows a capsule 

 A, the valves in fig. 29 ; A A, the receptacles of the seeds. 

 Nature, that leaves nothing undone, seems to take as much care 

 in the distribution of the seed as she did in its perfection. Some 

 capsules are so curiously arranged that the least touch, or even 

 dry weather, will burst them open and scatter the seeds in all 



