wards. In the rule and in the exception we equally perceive design 107.

107 This statement is incorrect. When the seed of cuscuta opens, it puts forth a little thread-shaped body, namely, a young root, which, as in other plants, plunges into the earth, and from the opposite end elevates a young and slender stem. The latter, after a little while, applies itself to some neighbouring plant, and emits very short broad suckers on the side of its stem, which is placed in contact with the other plant; by these suckers it fastens itself upon the new branch, round which it twines, and as soon as it is secure in its new station its root perishes, and it ceases to have any communication with the earth. This property in the cuscuta seems to be given it in consequence of its root not having the power that such parts usually possess of branching, lengthening, and attracting nutriment from the earth. If the cuscuta seed germinates at a distance from any living branch to which it can adhere, it elevates its stem for a short time in the air and then dies. If it is come in contact only with and it is only when it suc

so placed as to be able to dead branches, still it dies; ceeds in fixing itself upon a living branch that it emits its suckers and continues to exist. Once attached to the living stem of another plant, it takes that for its base, and turning round once or twice, then darts forth in a straight line, touches something else which it also fixes in its folds, and thus travels from plant to plant, sometimes covering a very considerable extent of bushes.

III. A better known parasitical plant is the evergreen shrub, called the misseltoe. What we have to remark in it is a singular instance of compensation. No art hath yet made these plants take root in the earth. Here, therefore, might seem to be a mortal defect in their constitution. Let us examine how this defect is made up to them. The seeds are endued with an adhesive quality so tenacious, that, if they be rubbed upon the smooth bark of almost any tree, they will stick to it. And then what follows? Roots, springing from these seeds, insinuate their fibres into the woody substance of the tree; and the event is, that a misseltoe plant is produced next winter*. Of no other plant do the roots refuse to shoot in the ground; of no other plant do the seeds possess this adhesive, generative quality, when applied to the bark of trees 108.

IV. Another instance of the compensatory system is in the autumnal crocus, or meadow saffron (colchicum autumnale). I have pitied this poor plant a thousand times. Its blossom rises out of the ground in the most forlorn condition pos

108 These statements are true, not only of the misseltoe or viscum actum, but of the whole natural order Loranthaca, with one exception.

* Withering, Bot. Arr. vol. i. p. 203, ed. 2nd.

sible; without a sheath, a fence, a calyx, or even a leaf to protect it: and that, not in the spring not to be visited by summer suns, but under all the disadvantages of the declining year. When

we come, however, to look more closely into the structure of this plant, we find that, instead of its being neglected, Nature has gone out of her course to provide for its security, and to make up to it for all its defects. The seed-vessel, which in other plants is situated within the cup of the flower, or just beneath it, in this plant lies buried ten or twelve inches underground within the bulbous root. The tube of the flower, which is seldom more than a few tenths of an inch long, in this plant extends down to the root. The styles in all cases reach the seed-vessel; but it is

in this by an elongation unknown to any other plant. All these singularities contribute to one end. "As this plant blossoms late in the year, and probably would not have time to ripen its seeds before the access of winter, which would destroy them, Providence has contrived its structure such, that this important office may be performed at a depth in the earth out of reach of the usual effects of frost*." That is to say, in the autumn nothing is done above ground but the business of impregnation; which is an affair between the antheræ and the stigmata, and is probably soon over. The maturation of the impregnated seed, which in other plants proceeds within a capsule, exposed together with the rest of the flower to the open air, is here carried on, and during the whole winter, within the heart, as we may say, of the earth, that is, "out of the reach of the usual effects of frost." But then a new difficulty presents itself. Seeds, though perfected, are known not to vegetate at this depth in the earth. Our seeds, therefore, though so safely lodged, would, after all, be lost to the purpose for which all seeds are intended. Lest this should be the case, 66 a second admirable provision is made to raise them above the sur

* Withering, ubi supra, p. 360.

face when they are perfected, and to sow them at a proper distance:" viz., the germ grows up in the spring, upon a fruit-stalk, accompanied with leaves. The seeds now, in common with those of other plants, have the benefit of the summer, and are sown upon the surface. The order of vegetation externally is this:-the plant produces its flowers in September; its leaves and fruits in the spring following.

V. I give the account of the diona muscipula, an extraordinary American plant, as some late authors have related it: but whether we be yet enough acquainted with the plant, to bring every part of this account to the test of repeated and familiar observation, I am unable to say. "Its leaves are jointed, and furnished with two rows of strong prickles; their surfaces covered with a number of minute glands, which secrete a sweet liquor that allures the approach of flies. When these parts are touched by the legs of flies, the two lobes of the leaf instantly spring up, the rows of prickles lock themselves fast together, and squeeze the unwary animal to death*." Here, under a new model, we recognise the ancient plan of nature, viz., the relation of parts and provisions to one another, to a common office, and to the utility of the organized body *Smellie's Phil. of Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 5.