190 LETTERS ON TREES. 



lay side by side of his, another view as to the mutual 

 relations of the seed and the bud — the view which I 

 briefly touched upon at the close of my last letter. 



2. What if the bud be the primary mode or form 

 of the reproductive process, the true original and the 

 proper type and representative of that process ? And 

 what if the seed be but a modification of the bud, for 

 the accomplishment of certain ends in the organic 

 economy of Nature for which the bud is inadequate ? 

 And what if that modification, although introduced 

 and extensively applied, in both the vegetable and 

 animal kingdoms, long anterior to the creation of man, 

 were introduced at the first with a prospective refer- 

 ence to him, and have its root in him, — its primary 

 source in man's moral nature, and its true significancy 

 in the institution of marriage, and in the family and 

 social relationships of humanity ? 



3. There seems nothing unreasonable in this view, 

 while there is much in the historv of this earth, in 

 what we see around us in the world, and indirectly in 

 the teaching of Revelation, to give countenance to it. 



The Heavens are the Lord's, but the Earth hath He 

 given to the children of men." Teeming though it 

 be with countless mvriads of innumerable kinds of 

 vegetables and animals, this earth has yet been cre- 

 ated for man. It has been the scene of many suc- 

 cessive and progressive changes extending over vast 

 periods of time — in all probability over millions of , 



