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THE LIFE OF A SEED. 
By maxwell T. MASTEES, M D., F.L.S. 
T he word ^^seed” is in such common use that we do not ima- 
gine that any one troubles himself to look into a dictionary 
to ascertain its meaning. Perhaps it is just as well that he 
does not, as ordinary intuition will supply as good an ex- 
planation as that afforded by Johnson, or rather by More, as 
quoted by the great lexicographer, and who states that a seed is 
the organised particle produced by plants and animals from 
which new plants and animals are generated.” Assuredly this 
definition will not satisfy the naturalist now-a-days. There 
would to most persons seem to be a great fitness in the use of 
so convenient and expressive a word as seed,” one so easily 
remembered, so readily understood, so free from ambiguity, 
so unlikely to be misapplied. But ask a botanist as to these 
points, and he will tell you that in many cases the so-called 
seed is confounded with the seed-vessel, while even botanists 
themselves constantly make use of such slipshod expressions as 
germination of the seed,” when they mean to speak of the 
growth and development of the embryo-plant encased within it. 
After this, when Miss Flora speaks of her “ seeds coming up 
nicely,” let no learned botanist smile in the fancied superiority 
of his own accuracy of expression. When St. Paul says, That 
which thou sowest is not quickened unless it die, and that which 
thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare 
grain, it may chance of wheat or of some other grain ; but Grod 
giveth it a body as it pleaseth Him and to every seed his own 
body,” he expresses a literal truth (apart from all metaphorical 
application) with far greater precision and accuracy of language 
than is generally employed by gardeners or botanists when they 
are speaking of the phenomena of germination. In the case of 
men of science the inaccuracy is not of so much consequence, as 
they are quite aware of the fact, and no inconvenience arises ; but 
with the laity, if they may so be called, the case is diiferent. The 
expressions in question are apt to be considered as correct, and 
erroneous notions consequently prevail. Perhaps the following 
