# Seed

A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering. The formation of the seed is part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosperm plants.

## Quotes

* I am of first-class seed, and my young are first-﻿born young!
** Bird, in Debate between Bird and Fish (late 3rd millennium BCE to early 2nd millennium BCE).
* Friends, the soil is poor, we must sow seeds in plenty for us to garner even modest harvests.
** Novalis, Blüthenstaub (1798).
* In this broad earth of ours, Amid the measureless grossness and the slag, Enclosed and safe within its central heart, Nestles the seed perfection.
** Walt Whitman, Song of the Universal, in Leaves of Grass
* But when they had unloosed the linen band, Which swathed the Egyptian's body, lo! was found, Closed in the wasted hollow of her hand, A little seed, which, sown in English ground, Did wondrous snow of starry blossoms bear, And spread rich odours through our springtide air.
** Oscar Wilde, Athanasia, Stanza 2.

### Bible

    The Bible in Wikisource
* And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
** Genesis 1:11-12, King James Version.
* And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
** Genesis 1:29, King James Version.
* For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.
** Genesis 13:15-17, King James Version.
* In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand.
** Ecclesiastes 11:6.
* Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath. And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.
** Jesus, Parable of the Growing Seed in Gospel of Mark 4:24-29.

## See also

* Botany
* Plants
* Harvest
* Agriculture

## External links

* Royal Holloway, University of London: The Seed Biology Place
* The Millennium Seed Bank Project Kew Garden's ambitious preservation project
* The Svalbard Global Seed Vault – a backup facility for the world's seed banks
* Plant Physiology online: Types of Seed Dormancy and the Roles of Environmental Factors
* Canadian Grain Commission:Seed characters used in the identification of small oilseeds and weed seeds
* The Seed Site: collecting, storing, sowing, germinating, and exchanging seeds, with pictures of seeds, seedpods and seedlings.
* Plant Fix: Check out various plant seeds and learn more information about them