CHE REFERENCE LIBRARY - Pole Shift Survival Information

2 THE NURSERE’-MANUAL
on the coats of mids and ill clot.hing, holding fast by hooks
id hrbs of nxuny kinds. Some seeds are ejected forcibly
from i-licbir capsule, as in the jewel-weed or touch-me-not
and the witch-hazel. lU:my seeds and fruits are carried long
distances in ocean currents ; the coconut is the familiar citation.
Seeds are transported ill the removal of earth, by the commerce
in many commodities and by floods that denude the land and
carry awq* its substance. All over the earth the seeds have
traveled. Vlear a piece of land ever so’ carefully, till it until
all the germinating seeds are killed, remove all the trees and
mow the land for miles around, then leave the place alone for
a few years, and behold the vegetation that arises !
Marvelous :-tre the seeds : each one is an epitome of the
species condensed into the minutest space, fashioned every
one of its own kind, holding within its coats the possibilities
of life on the planet. Everywhere they abound, so common
and so familiar that they pass unnoticed. We have never
thought of a world without seeds.
The abundance of seeds is one of the most significant facts
in nature. E-cry kind of tree and bush and herb yields such
numbers that it might populate the earth. Branches bend
with seeds ; often the winds are 1adel.l with them ; they rattle
along the ground and pile themselves in the still places. The
seeds of begonias and orchids are as dust. Thus are the
chances multiplied that the species will not fail. In all this
profusion one cannot conceive that sufficient seed will not fall
on good ground to give the plant its chance to persist and to
yield its fruit after its kind. Sature is prodigal in propagation.
We do not fear that vegetation will cease from the earth.
Yet as abundant as are the seeds, seeming to make f:ailure
impossible, they may not germinate readily even in a state of
nature. Many kinds are contained in impervious and stonelike
coverings that are penetrated or broken only with di%culty ;
and the casings may have’to rot away or be cracked by frost