116 
SEED. 
LECTURE XV. 
The Seed. 
We have now traced the plant from the root through all its 
various organs, until we have arrived at that part, which is a 
link in the chain of vegetable existence between the old and new 
plant ; if this were destroyed, if the seeds of plants were no 
longer perfected, what changes 'would the whole face of nature 
present. The earth would in one year be stripped of the whole 
tribe of annual plants ; in another the biennial plants would 
vanish, leaving a still more cheerless vacancy ; the perennial 
would year after year disappear, until, (if we could suppose our 
own lives to be prolonged in such a strange state of nature,) we 
should behold the earth one vast scene of vegetable ruin ; occa- 
sionally here and there a venerable oak or an ancient pine 
would stand in solitary grandeur, the mournful remnants of the 
once beautiful and fertile vegetable kingdom. 
But such a sad spectacle the earth will never present, for we 
have the promise of God himself, that “ while the earth remain- 
eth seed time and harvest shall not cease.” 
We have seen in the progress of our inquiries, that while the 
present plant is diffusing around it beauty and fragrance, ad- 
ministering to the necessities and luxuries of man, the watch- 
ful care of that Being who never slumbers nor sleeps, is by a 
slow but certain progress perfecting that part, which is destined 
to continue the species and which is, “ the sole end and aim of 
all the organs of fructification.”* 
The seed is that internal part of the fruit which envelopes 
the complete rudiment of a new plant, similar to that from 
which it received its existence. Seeds are various in their form; 
the mustard is globular; some species of beans are oblong ; the 
cocoa nut is ovoid ; the buck wheat is angular, &c. 
The seed consists of three principal parts, viz. the eye, husk 
and kernel. 
1st. The eye or hilum is the scar formed by the separation of 
the membrane or thread which connected the seed with 
the pericarp, and conveyed to the former the necessary 
nourishment. This connecting membrance is usually 
very short; but in the magnolia it is some inches in length. 
♦Liunseus. 
Appearances which nature would present if the seed were no longer per- 
fected — Seed contains the rudiment of a new plant — Forms of seeds — Parts 
of the seed — Eye. 
