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times by the wind to great diftances from the plant which produces them. It is the fwelling alfo of this downy tuft within the feed-vessel, that seems to overcome the refiftance of its coats, and to open a paffage for the feed to escape.

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But the conftitution of feeds is ftill more admirable than either their preservation or their difperfion. In the body of the feed of every fpecies of plant, or nearly of every one, provifion is made for two grand purposes: first, for the fafety of the germ; fecondly, for the temporary fupport of the future plant. The fprout, as folded up in the feed, is delicate and brittle, beyond other fubftance. It cannot be touched without being broken. Yet, in beans, peas, grassfeeds, grain, fruits, it is fo fenced on all fides, fo fhut up and protected, that, whilst the feed itself is rudely handled, toffed into facks, fhovelled into heaps, the miniature plant, the facred particle, remains unhurt. It is wonderful alfo, how long many kinds of feed, by the help of their integuments, and perhaps of their oils, ftand out against decay. A grain of muftard feed has been known to lie in the earth for a hundred years; and, as foon as it had acquired a favorable fituation, to shoot

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as vigorously as if just gathered from the plant. Then, as to the fecond point, the temporary support of the future plant, the matter ftands thus. In grain, and pulfe, and kernels, and pippins, the germ compofes a very fmall part of the feed. The reft confifts of a nutritious fubftance, from which the fprout draws its aliment for fome confiderable time after it is put forth; viz. until the fibres, fhot out from the other end of the feed, are able to imbibe juices from the earth, in a fufficient quantity for its demand. It is owing to this conftitution, that we fee feeds fprout, and the sprouts make a confiderable progress, without any earth at all. It is an economy alfo, in which we remark a clofe analogy between the feeds of plants, and the eggs of animals. The fame point is provided for, in the fame manner, in both. In the egg, the refidence of the living principle, the cicatrix, forms a very minute part of the contents. The white, and the white only, is expended in the formation of the chicken. The yolk, very little altered or diminished, is wrapped up in the abdomen of the young bird, when it quits the fhell; and ferves for its nourish

ment, till it have learnt to pick its own food.

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This perfectly resembles the first nutrition of a plant. In the plant, as well as in the animal, the ftructure has every character of contrivance belonging to it: in both it breaks the transition from prepared to unprepared aliment: in both it is profpective and compenfatory. In animals which fuck, this intermediate nourishment is fupplied by a different fource.

In all fubjects the most common obfervations are the best, when it is their truth and ftrength which have made them common. There are, of this fort, two concerning plants, which it falls within our plan to notice. The firft relates to, what has already been touched upon, their germination. When a grain of corn is caft into the ground, this is the change which takes place. From one end of the grain iffues a green fprout: from the other a number of white fibrous threads. How can this be explained? Why not fprouts from both ends? Why not fibrous threads from both ends? To what is the difference to be referred, but to defign; to the different ufes which the parts are thereafter to ferve; ufes which difcover themselves in the fequel of the procefs? The fprout, or plumule, ftruggles into the air; and becomes the plant, of which,

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from the first, it contained the rudiments: the fibres fhoot into the earth; and, thereby, both fix the plant to the ground, and collect nourishment from the foil for its fupport. Now, what is not a little remarkable, the parts iffuing from the feed take their respective directions, into whatever position the feed itself happens to be caft. If the feed be thrown into the wrongeft poffible position, that is, if the ends point in the ground the reverse of what they ought to do, every thing, nevertheless, goes on right. The sprout, after being pushed down a little way, makes a bend and turns upwards; the fibres, on the contrary, after shooting at firft upwards, turn down. Of this extraordinary vegetable fact, an account has lately been attempted to be given. "The plumule, it is faid, is ftimulated by the air into action, and elongates itself when it is thus moft excited: the radicle is ftimulated by moisture, and elongates itself when it is thus moft excited. Whence one of these grows upward in queft of its adapted object, and the other downward *." Were this account better verified by experiment than it is, it only fhifts

* Darwin's Phytologia, p. 144.

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the contrivance. It does not difprove the contrivance; it only removes it a little further back. Who, to ufe our author's own language, “adapted the objects?" Who fuch gave a quality to thefe connate parts, as to be fufceptible of different "ftimulation:" as to be "excited" each only by its own element, and precifely by that, which the fuccefs of the vegetation requires? I fay," which the fuccefs of the vegetation requires," for the toil of the hufbandman would have been in vain; his laborious and expenfive preparation of the ground in vain; if the event muft, after all, depend, upon the position in which the scattered feed was fown. Not one feed out of a hundred would fall in a right direction.

Our second obfervation is upon a general property of climbing plants, which is strictly mechanical. In these plants, from each knot or joint, or, as botanifts call it, axilla of the plant, iffue, close to each other, two shoots; one, bearing the flower and fruit, the other, drawn out into a wire, a long, tapering, fpiral tendril, that twifts itself round any thing which lies within its reach. Confidering, that, in this clafs, two purposes are to be provided for, (and together,) fructification and support,

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