Beauties of Sturm's Reflections; In Lessons on the Works of God and of His Providence - Softcover

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1806. Excerpt: ... I LESSON XXX. SEEDS. A LL vegetables spring from seeds; but the greater number of these are not sown, and are even invisible to us. It is nature that disperses them. With this view she has furnished some seeds with a sort of light down, or little feathers, which serve as wings for the wind to carry them away, and spread them every where. Other seeds are small and heavy enough to fall perpendicularly on the earth, and to sink of themselves into it. Others of a larger or lighter sort, which might be carried away by the wind, have one or more little hooks to catch, and prevent them from going too far from their place. And what is still more admirable, is, that nature seems to have given to some birds the care of planting trees: they gather gooseberries, currants, cherries, nuts, and various kinds tof fruit, and carrying them to a place of security for food, some of them are scattered on the earth, where they shoot, take root, and become fruit-bearing bushes or trees. Ravens have been thus seen to plant oaks; and this is their method: they make a hole in the ground with their bill, and drop an acorn into it, which they afterwards cover with earth and moss. It must not be supposed they do all this with an intention to plant trees; it is instinct alone which prompts them. They bury the acorn for their food,--it shoots, and becomes an oak. If the sowing of seeds in meadows and forests had been entirely left to mankind, how insufficient would have been the means! Observe, how, at the return of spring, the grass and flowers shoot up and adorn the earth, without our having in any degree contributed towards it. But this is not all that is to be admired in respect to seeds. It is remarkable that the whole plant, however great it may be, is all concealed in the narrow...