In addition to a pebble collection and a sea glass collection, I have an incipient collection of seeds and nuts. Unlike pebbles or sea glass, seeds are alive, almost warm. (As are birds’ eggs. If I had been a 19th century naturalist, I would undoubtedly have started a collection of these rotund treasures, but there’s no way my conscience would let me do it now). Seeds have a mission, with the odds stacked heavily against them: to get away from their parent plants, lodge in th