66

which comes from North America; it has a root and two "seed leaves,' " but the bud is not open yet. The next (27), as you could guess, is the common mustard, and the leaves are appearing between the seed-leaves," as they do when it is getting too 66 "old" to be nice to eat. In (28), which is a beech, the stem and several proper leaves have grown, and yet the "seed-leaves" remain. I must tell you that (26) and (28) are drawn very much smaller than they really are.

The second way in which the "seed-plant" begins to grow you may see at (29), which represents a young oak-tree. The two "seed-leaves" of the acorn, you all know, fill up the whole of the shell, and are very thick and fleshy. When they swell and burst the shell, and the root has found its way into the soil, they do not spread out into curiously-shaped green leaves, but the little bud between them makes haste and puts forth, first one leaf, and then another, of its own; and the two "seed-leaves," which contain the

first supply of food for the "seedling," keep their place until they have given it all the nourishment they can, and are shrivelled and brown, and quite dry; and at last they fall off. In the plant I made this drawing from, they had almost finished their work. It was, of course, very much larger than this drawing.

If you look at the woodcut marked (19), you will see the seed of a fir-tree cut open; and you cannot help noticing the short, thick "little plant" within. As soon as it sprouts, it becomes thin and long, like (30); and sometimes the husk will not fall off from the top of the "seed-leaves" till it is decayed, or the bud, growing out from the middle of them, pushes it off. This plant sprouts in the first way I mentioned.

Those plants whose seeds have but one "seedleaf," begin to grow in the first manner; that is, the "seed-leaf" becomes a real leaf, and the "seedling" is nursed by the supply of food amongst which it lies. The drawing marked (31) shows the sprouting of one of our marsh plants. The single "seed-leaf” is represented coming out of a slit in the side of the stem. The next (32) is a kernel of wheat beginning

to grow. The one "seed-leaf" is lifting itself up

wards; and beside the first root, which comes from the end of the seed, there are two smaller roots on each side.

It is very strange that if one, or even both, of the "leaves" of the " 'seed-plant" of a kidney-bean be cut off before it begins to grow, it will sprout when

31

32

sown, although it has lost its proper supply of food; but the plant is not strong; and the root or the bud of other seeds has been cut off as soon as it came, and the "seed-plant" has put forth another, and gone on growing. You will find it very amusing and instructive to watch the sprouting of seeds for yourselves. You need not dig up those planted for the sake of their flowers to do this; but if you have a little garden of your own, you can put a few of different kinds into the earth for the purpose. And if you have not a garden, you may make mustard and cress grow on a piece of flannel laid in a saucer of water, and see all that goes on, just as you could watch bees at work in a glass hive. Or you could make an acorn sprout and grow into an oak plant of some size, by tying a piece of thin string round it, and hanging it over some water in a bottle with an open neck.

When I told you about the provision made for the young plant whilst it was yet in the seed, I said that it showed us God's wisdom, and love, and might. And now we have seen the "seed-plant," as soon as it was waked to life, send out, first, a little white fibre, downwards, as if it knew where the things that the root could make use of were, and afterwards as delicate a little stem upwards, as if it knew that there the air and light, which its leaves

If you

would need, were. And it is always so. turn the acorn round in the loop of string, so that the root-fibre should be upwards, and the leaf-stem downwards, each will bend round and grow in its old direction.

Is this because the seed, or its root or stem, can see, or because the plant knows what it is doing? No; it has only life: it knows nothing. It is God's doing. In ways too wonderful for us to think, He enables each little plant to do exactly what is necessary for its growth and thriving. And we may learn, by noticing them, that God is always near, and always ready to help and guide us to all that is good for us; for He watches over them, and we are "much better than they."

Pictures from the Life of Jesus.

PICTURE III.

THE PREACHER OF THE WILDERNESS.

(Concluded from p. 77.)

You remember the gospel writer says, "Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and man ;" and though this seems but scanty information for eighteen long years, much may be inferred from it. Depend upon it the home at Nazareth was a happy place, for holiness was there, and holiness is only another name for happiness; and we can think how Jesus grew to be a man, and how, submitting to that good law of Palestine which made all parents teach their sons some trade, he toiled all day in the workshop of Joseph, putting honour upon industry, by being called the carpenter; and we can think of him, hidden from the world, yet making despised Nazareth a happy spot, by deeds of mercy and by words of love, and in his own person destroying the proverb, "No good thing can come out of Nazareth."

The song of the angels, the shining star, the words of Anna and of Simeon, have been forgotten by all but a few: the wonder has gone by-the glory which shone round him when he came, has died away, but only for a season. He stands amid the throng, a poor Galilean peasant; the hopeful, the fearful, the devout, the envious, the curious, the anxious, the oppressed, are about him; and John, in his solemn, fearless strain is bidding them repent,