Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-02-10
THE SEED THEORX OF vEGETA-
TION.
To seunaaess Questioned.

To Seundness Questioned.
| Written for TIE STAR By E. Coombs.
ID. Turner has an article i'm your last Satur-
days issue entitled The Earth is Fua of Seed
which isinterestng both In Its facts and In Its de-
auctions. With respect to the latter, he EVIL
IDENTIFY commits himself to the popular view that
primarily all vegetable life (and, per conse-
quence, all other forms Of life also) begins with
seed. Such belief is so agreeable with COM
mon observation and experience that few carry
their Inquiries beyond the generally accepted
fact that outside Of the seed, nature is endowed
by the Creator with no reproductive resources.
As to the soundness Of this doctrine, must con-
Tess myself skeptical In my younger days
was engaged in agricultural pursuits in one ofthe
western ates.-1owa- My curiosity was often
excited by observations like those cited in
Mr.. Turner's article. l will refer to
tS,s Kind three memorable sni instances
cleared in high upland forest of gigantic oaks,
several acres Of land had been plowed and left
to run wild again. The following year thrifty
growth Of fir, or f1re-weeds higher than q mani
| head. came up. The next year, from the seed
of the first sprang up thicker growth. but
dwarfed to two or three feet In hight, and some
strawberry vines began to show themselves.
The third year the fir-weeds had almost disap-
peared, but the ground was In many places well
1
and here and there the shrub known as asun,ach
sprang up and grew Justify, besides many black
berry vines.
Such was the succession of vegetable life on
| this plot OF ground in three years. marked in
| connection with these observations that none of
| these plants grew in the outlying lands Joining
this field, except in few small spots where the
: earth had been artificiay broken or stirred: and
that no asumach could be found nearer than a
quarter of mile from this clearing. in a deep
ntrh V,hi Il rad Ia
More than mile away from the forest of
| which have spoken, on the prairie adjacent
| thereto, my father broke up and enclosed
fifteen acres OF land, which, on account Of sick
ness and other misfortunes, was also allowed
to run wild after the first year. There was the
same succession of vegetable life till after the
third year. as in the former instance, when a
peculiar kind of oak began to come In, different
IN variety from any kind known to grow in the
forest lands of that part Of the country. Now,
| have decided conviction that the seed Of
| these oaks was not planted there by man nor by
any other living creature, For was 1t carried
there by the wind, though we do sometimes
have cyclones in that part of the country which
are quite equal to the production OF such
| phenomenon; but no candid, philOsophic mind
would urge this as an argument to make out a
case against the doctrine of spontaneous pro-
duction.
But there are other facts equally suggestive
tn at point my argument against the theory that
| the earth is always and everywhere full of real
seeds which produce the varieties of vegetable
lie that we see. On the wasted ruins of an old
| house, close to the western banks of the Missis-
sippi, six miles above Muscatine City, Iowa,
saw burdOck and poke, or cocumberry plants,
growing rankly in its rich mold. Just as have
seen them growing hundred times in similar
places In the older settled states OF New Eng
| land; though | have reason to believe these
plants are not Indigenous tothe soil of the west
| ern states under ordinary circumstances.
| In the autumn of 1858 was visiting at the
house of Mr. Haynes, a farmer i'm Marlton n
j. / went with him to see one of the immense
| marl-beds in that vicinity. For thirty feet or
more the earth had been excayated to bring
forth the rich deposits of mari which farmers
use for enrching their lands. Mr.. III. Informed
me that wherever that was used as dressing,
the soil would, without any other invitation.
come INTO white-tOp clOver.-abundant proofs of
which fact l saw everywhere in that vicinity;
and dare venture the assertion that the most
rigid test to which this mari can be subjected
Will fail to show that there is primarily single
seed of clover to be found i'm it. or that ii is
necessary to the production of said clover that
there should be such seed in the soil upon which
| the mari Is cast
Now, if there be any who think that the doc
trine of spontaneous production is materialistic
perniciOus and contrary to the cosmogOny of
| Moses 1t can be easily shown. on the contrary
that this is the very doctrine which he pro-
pounds in the first two words of the first chap
| ter of Genesis, and the whole Of this chapter
| and the first five verses Of the second chapter
| are in clear calculation of the same as an an
peal to the original text would show. For the
| words brGsltlh 6dra are not SO translated i'm any
modern versions of the Old Testament as to
bring out the true sense Of the Hebrew, which
is not In the beginning God created &c, but
should read At first, in principle, Goa created
That is to say, the whole of the first chapter re-
| lates to p,'incipidtion. Everything was created
| in contingent pussance of being,-framed out
established. eementised and existing potenti-
| ally in the Divine will, and ready to descend
into ultimates in the natural and material plane
just as thought or conception of the mind
pfecedeS and ultimates i'm external acts and
creations. A hint Of this idea is afforded in the
fourth and fifth verses Of Genesis, second chap
| ter. common version: "These are the genera
tions of the heavens and Of the earth
when they were created, in the day that
the Lord God made the earth and the
heavens and every plant of the field before IL
,cos in aie earth, and every herb of the field
before 1t grer; for the Lord God had not caused
1t to rain upon the EARTH and there scds not a
man to till the ground" And yet we see in the
preceding chapter that all these things were
created and had existed; but as yet in poten-
1 tiallty OF being only, as already observed
Now 1t was as easy to have created all plants,
animals, and man himself-when the ultimate
| act OF creation took place. i'm the full maturity
| OF their existence, seyeraly. as to have created
| the seed whence. as rule. they were to be
reproduced in the earth; and on either hypoth-
eSls there are difficulties which are insurmOunt-
able 10y human reason. | am content to rest,
however. in the conclusion that the same poten-
tlal forces exist throughout the realm Of Nature
to-day, as were in it on that memorable sixth
| day when God saw everything that He had
made lexisting potentiallyl and, behold, it was
Washington, D. c.. Feb. 4, 1888.
Madagascar.