16 



CONCERNING 



SECT. II* 



are thick and fucculent, calculated to imbibe air and 

 inoifture from the atmofphere, for the fupport of the 

 tender plant, that might other wife fuffer by drought : 

 lor it mx\$t proceed in growth, or it would quickly die. 

 When the radicle has ftruck downwards, the office of 

 the feed is evidently to nourifh thefe leaves, as is feen 

 by the feed coming above the ground with them, ex- 

 hauited of its fubftance — a mere fhell flicking to the 

 top of the leaves. 



But fome plants have no feed leaves properly fo 

 called, as cam; which has therefore been deemed by 

 fome, not ftriftly a feed, but a bud, or bulb, 



It has been doubted whether all plants have feed, 

 becaufe fane forts have not been obferved to produce it. 

 To conclude that they have, is however more agree- 

 able to the uniformity ot the divine procedure, and al- 

 together to reafon. 



Seed may be conceived fo fmall as not to he difcerned 

 with the help of convex glaffes, as we know there are 

 many not difcernible without them-; and with this mi. 

 nutenefs, k may be extremely fugacious by its flight 

 adhefion to the plant. 



The truth is, God originally ordained that plants 

 ihould proceed from feed, and they do, (Gen. i. £.J 

 It was long faid, that fern "bare no feed; but this is 

 a demonftrable miftake. That Mujhrcoms produce 

 feed, we need not doubt. Many of the moffes are fo 

 fmall in the ftate of plants, that the micro/cope- only 

 can difcover their flowers, and even in fome, the plants 

 themfelves are but barely thus difcernible. A great 

 variety of feeds are wafted about continually in the air, 

 and produce their kind, whenever they light upon a 

 proper matrix. Whatever has been objected there ap- 

 pears good ground for believing, that there is no natural 

 production, either in the vegetable or animal king, 

 dom, but what comes from the feed, or egg of fome 

 parent. 



