The Plane, 



in its portion of wool, and is thus scattered abroad by the 

 winds, 



471. The seed, as I have called it above, is, however, 

 only the coat of the seed. It is a little brown thing, in the 

 shape of such nail as 1 have described before. There is 

 nothing of vegetation that appears in it; but, if carefully 

 opened, after having been for a while steeped in warm 

 water, you can discover a little point of white pith; but 

 even then, after the soaking, not exceeding in bulk the point 

 of a common pin; beyond all measure smaller than the pith 

 of a Lettuce seed. From this comes, from this mere atom 

 comes, such immense trees ! This is a more wonderful 

 thing than all the other wonders of the vegetable creation. 



472. Now, the reader will perceive, that this atom of pith 

 is not of sufficient strength to force up out of the ground the 

 thick and tough covering which nature has put around it. 

 The manner of growing in seeds is, the root starts first, 

 and, when it has acquired sufficient strength, it forces up 

 the head. The root of the Plane comes out at the point 

 of the nail, as I have called it; but this root has not suffi- 

 cient strength to force up, through any thing of a covering 

 of ground, so comparatively large and long a thing as the 

 shank and butt of the nail. When covered with ground, 

 therefore, the root starts, the leaves come out under the 

 ground, but without the means of being forced up out of 

 the ground ; and this is, too, the case of the Birch and of 

 many other seeds. 



473. I, therefore, as the result of these reflections and 

 observations, went to work, and proceeded thus : I broke 

 the Plane balls to pieces, rubbed them well with the hand 

 to separate the wool from the seeds ; sifted out the seeds as 



s 2 



