Seeds. 
As a careful mother throws around her 
offspring every protection necessary to in- 
»ure its lite and growth, so the vegetable 
mother carefully nourishes and guards the 
germs for reproduction. In the grains and 
grasses, a hard, bristly armor protects the 
kernel. The seeds of the apple and plum 
are placed in corneous cells, tucked snugly 
away into the very center of the meat, and 
protected by an injection of a pungent, 
bitter oil to divert the taste that would 
otherwise destroy them. The germ of the 
nut family is encased in a hard, bony shell, 
that defies alike the crushing teeth of an¬ 
imals and the prying intrusion of insects. 
All the floral sisterhood put on their ga> est 
attire to challenge admiration and diveit 
the attention from their seed-cells, which 
they do up in unseemly bundles, when their 
glory has passed away. And so, with ad¬ 
mirable provision and similar art and cun¬ 
ning, does every class throughout the en¬ 
tire realm of the vegetable kingdom, throw 
safeguards of protection about the sources 
/ 
of reproduction. 
Scarcely less admirable in the fact of the 
profusion and abundance of blossoms and 
seeds. An apple tree glorifies in a million 
of blossoms. Not more than ten per cent, 
of these become fruitful; and again; fifty 
per cent, of these fall like “untimely figs 
shaken by the wind,” in order to give place 
for as many as the tree can nurse and ma¬ 
ture. And yet, after all this diminution, 
an apple tree with an average crop will 
p oduce seeds enough in one year to cover 
a large farm with orchard. 
The seed production on an acre, of the 
esculent grains and grasses—if every one 
should germinate—would sow a vast plan¬ 
tation. This in nature’s economy is to 
guard against the accident of loss and the 
uncertainty of vitality, as well as to supply 
cereals for consumption. Of course, space 
in this paper forbids that our theme should 
be exhausted. On the other hand it is 
merely suggestive, and the observing and 
contemplative reader may follow out the 
inquiry to a limitless extent. 
The process of the hybridization of plants 
is as curious as it is constructive and prac¬ 
tical. Corn, for instance, will not hybrid¬ 
ize, but it will breed from inoculation when 
growing in the same neighborhood, by a 
simple process of its own. Every cell in 
the ear sends out a filament, or silk, just ag 
the tassel matures, and the t'runciifying 
process is accomplished by a particle of 
pollen falling from the tassel to the silk; 
and whatever varieu the com is that pro¬ 
duces the pollen, the kernel cell is impreg¬ 
nated with the same. So if white corn and 
black, dent and pop-corn are planted fh 
near proximity, they mix as an invariable 
rule, precisely by this process. The agri¬ 
culturist should take care that, if he would 
avoid a mixture, the different varieties 
should be planted at wide distances apart, 
avoiding the range of the summer wiqd- 
currents. And then, again, a sufficient 
quantity of the same variety should be 
planted together, to insure the fact that 
every thread of silk catches a particle of 
pollen, else blanks will appear in the ma¬ 
tured cob. A single row of corn planted 
across a garden, or a few hills planted to¬ 
gether, will probably bring a crop more 
than haif abortive. 
Other vegetables will hybridize by sim¬ 
ilar processes, a squash and pumpkin, a 
watermelon and a citron, a pepper and a 
tomato, different varieties of cucumbers 
and such is true of an endless variety of 
kindred species. The writer once read a 
work on botany, in which the author said 
he knew of no utility of the honey deposit¬ 
ed in the nectar cup of the flowers. That 
together with the pollen of the flowers of 
kindred plants, attracts the bee, and in pur¬ 
suit of food and the pollen for feeding her 
helpless young, causes her to ransack first 
one flower and then another, and she thus, 
unconsciously conveys the fructi ymg 
pollen from one flower to another, and 
fertilization ensues. 
But perhaps the devices of Nature, which 
she has invented to sow her seeds, are the 
most curious and admirable. The neces¬ 
sity of bread aud feed for domestic ani¬ 
mals, and their commercial value prompts 
men to garner and plant the grains and 
esculent vegetables. But without the 
effort of man, many valuable, as well as 
