soft and fleshy, others are hard and stone-like, and some are dry; some grow in irregular masses, like the blackberry, and others in a multiple form, like the mulberry and the pine cone. 5. The SEED is the reservoir of the most nutritious part of the vegetable, often containing twenty times more nourishing material than any other part of the plant. As might therefore be expected, a great portion of the food of man and animals consists of seeds. The quantity of Indian-corn raised annually in the United States is about six hundred million bushels, and probably there is an equal quantity of other grains. Besides, large quantities of seeds are raised for the purpose of making various oils. In fact, the farmer is mainly engaged in collecting a practically useful herbarium" within his barns and granaries; and he ought, of all men, to feel an interest in botanical knowledge. 6. The value of agricultural products in the United States for the year 1850 was estimated at one billion six hundred million dollars, all of which came out of the earth or its atmosphere in the form of vegetation. It is true that wool, live-stock, milk, and butter, are included; but the whole passed through the laboratory of vegetable life. About five hundred million dollars worth of the above products was composed of various seeds or grains. The land cultivated to produce such an enormous product was less than one hundred million acres. 7. The periods of germination of seeds are various. Some, as oats, rye, and wheat, will germinate, under favorable cir cumstances, in a single day; while mustard, turnip, and the bean require three days. Lettuce requires four days; melon and cucumber seeds germinate in five days, barley in seven, cabbage in ten, and parsley in fifteen days. The almond and peach require a year; and many seeds of trees do not germi nate under two years. 8. The vitality10 of seeds is wonderful. It has been related, and extensively copied, that healthy plants of wheat have been raised from grains found in a mummy case not less than three thousand years old. A recent and valuable book asserts that, "had the wheat crop been at any time entirely destroyed, this invaluable grain would have been restored to us from seeds preserved for more than three thousand years in the folds of an Egyptian mummy." But Prof. Asa Gray, an eminent American botanist, says "that the asserted cases of such germination will not bear examination; and that those best qualified to judge utterly disbelieve not only the asserted fact, but also the possibility of any such occurrence." 9. At the Dublin meeting of the British Association, Dr. Steel stated that he had planted many seeds obtained from Egyptian mummies, but always failed to obtain any indications11 of their vitality.10 But Dr. Moore, of the Dublin Botanic Garden, related an instance in which he had succeeded in producing a new species of leguminous12 plant from the seeds obtained from a vase discovered in an Egyptian tomb. 10. It is not certain that the seeds planted by Dr. Moore were as old as he supposed, but it is well known that the seeds of leguminous12 plants, such as beans and peas, will retain their vitality 10 about fifty years, and that various seeds of grasses germinate after a period of eight years. Seeds packed in air-tight cans soon lose their vitality. They seem to keep best wrapped up in brown paper, or other porous113 material. 11. It is often related that strange plants spring up in earth that has been removed from far below the surface in digging wells. One instance which has found its way into the books is the following. In Maine, some well-diggers were sinking a well at a distance of forty miles from the sea; when at the depth of twenty feet they found a stratum14 of sand, similar to that of the sea-beach, but unlike any known in the vicinity of the well. 12. The sand was scattered about on the soil, and in a year or two a great number of small trees appeared where the sand had been strewn.15 The trees were different from any growing in the neighborhood, but like trees growing on the sea-shore. It was supposed that these trees, known as the beach plum, must have sprung up from seeds which were in the stratum1 of sea-sand, and had remained dormant16 till brought to the surface. 13. At a meeting of the British Association, Dr. Cleghorn stated that after the burning or clearing of a forest in India, invariably there sprung up a new set of plants, before unknown in that locality. It is well known, also, that in many parts of this country, when recent forest clearings are burned over, there soon springs up a peculiar grass not previously found in the vicinity. How came the seeds there? where did they dwell before the clearing? That the embryo1 plant should survive so long as well-authenticated facts establish, is truly wonderful, though perhaps it is no more wonderful than that it should exist at all. The following lines beautifully express the mysteries of seed life. Though the March winds pipe1s to make our passage clear; Where our small seed dwells, Nor is known the moment green when our tips appear. In silence build our bowers, And leaf by leaf in silence show, till we laugh atop sweet flowers." 15. The same writer, in comparing flowers with fables, which are instructive and amusing stories, gives the preference to the former, as they are not only more true, and equally loved, but they spring up by every old pathway, and are "marvels sweet forever." 66 "O! true things are fables, Fit for sagest tables, And the flowers are true things, yet no fables they; Bright, nor loved of yore; Yet they grew not, like the flowers, by every old pathway; Fools may prize us never, Yet we rise, and rise, and rise-marvels sweet forever." 1 A-NAL'-O-GOUS, similar to; like. 2 IL-LUS-TRA-TION, explanation. LEIGH HUNT. 9 GER-MI-NA'-TION, the act of sprouting. 10 VI-TAL'-I-TY, power of maintaining life. 3 DE-VEL'-OP-MENT, opening; unfolding; 11 IN-DI-CA'-TIONS, signs; tokens. growth. 12 LE-GU'-MI-NOUS, pod-bearing. 4 COM-MU-NI-CATES WITH," has the means 13 Pō'-ROUS, loose; open; having pores or of passing to. 5 "MUL-TI-PLE FORM," in series of uniform 14 6 RES-ER-VOIR', store-house; receptacle. small openings. STRA'-TUM, a thin layer. 15 STREWN (pronounced strun). 16 DOR'-MANT, in a sleeping state. 17 EM'-BRY-O, pertaining to the rudiments or beginnings of any thing. 18 PIPE, whistle. FLOWERS, THE STARS OF EARTH. 1. Spake full well, in language quaint1 and olden, 2. Stars they are, wherein we read our history, 3. Wondrous truths, and manifolds as wondrous, 4. Bright and glorious is that revelation, In these stars of earth, these golden flowers. 5. Every where about us are they glowing- 6. Not alone in Spring's armorial bearing,9 7. Not alone in meadows and green alleys, 8. Not alone in her vast dome of glory, Not on graves of bird and beast alone, 9. In the cottage of the rudest peasant; In ancestral homes, whose crumbling towers, 10. In all places, then, and in all seasons, Flowers expand their light and soul-like wings, 11. And with childlike, credulous13 affection, |