The restoration sequence:  Sun, water, dry land, grass and plants.
The food chain had to be restored first—so animals would have something to eat.  I think it is interesting that the seeds were already on the earth.  Left over from when they were created way back in verse one.  They were there.  They hadn’t sprouted because of the darkness that was upon the face of the earth.  The lack of sunlight had kept the seeds from sprouting, growing and reproducing.  The sun was blotted out--science shows us that--from ice cores.  And that the darkness on earth lasted for sixteen years. 

I read somewhere that in excavating the pyramids, archeologists found kernels of corn.  They planted the corn, and some of it sprouted—after thousands of years.  The Bible says, “Let the earth bring forth grass...whose seed is in itself, upon the earth.”

Seed may be dark, and dry looking.  But inside, there is something that man hasn’t been able to reproduce.  Life.  Rocks are also dark and dry looking.  But rocks don’t sprout.  They don’t have life inside.  Seeds have the power to “…bring forth…”  Life!  Something man can't duplicate.  

I watched a Science documentary the other night, (I am hooked on Discover, Nova, Drain the Oceans, and National Geographic) that said that grass is the most important life sustaining plant on the earth.”  Interesting, that the exact plant, grass—is the plant that is written about in Scripture.  In verse 11 it says, “Let the earth bring forth grass…”  Food for the animals.