per depths for their growth, and, at the same time, secured from such animals as feed upon them. Many of the seeds of annual plants are provided with a light down, by which they are enabled, with the help of the wind, to rise to great heights, and spread themselves very wide, to propagate their species in distant lands. The sun, by its annual visit to the northern and southern tropic, alternately gives action and rest to vegetation. The floods, which, in many countries, fall, at certain seasons, from the mountains, cover the plains, and enrich the soil by the sediment of their waters. The frosts of winter, also, by expanding the moisture contained in the earth, loosen and break the clods, so as to make them give way to the spreading roots of vegetables; and swine, moles, and such other animals, root up and loosen the earth, and fit it to receive the roots of plants.

Then spring the living herbs, profusely wild,
O'er all the deep-green earth, beyond the power
Of botanist to number up their tribes:
Whether he steals along the lonely dale,
In silent search; or through the forest rank,
With what the dull incurious weeds account,

Burst his blind way; or climbs the mountain rock,
Fired by the nodding verdure of its brow;
With such a liberal hand has nature flung
Their seeds abroad; blown them about in winds;
Innumerous mixed them with the nursing mould,
The moist'ning current, and prolific rain.

THOMSON.

Birds are natural planters of several sorts of wood and trees: they disseminate the kernels upon the earth, which, like nurseries, bring them forth till they grow up to their natural strength and perfection. Crows have been observed, at the latter end of autumn, planting a grove of oaks: they first made little holes in the ground with their bills, going about till the hole was deep enough, and then they dropped in the acorn, and covered it with the

earth and moss. Some think, that Providence has given the crows this instinct, solely for the propagation of trees: but others are of opinion, that it was given them principally for their own preservation, by hiding provision in time of plenty, in order to supply them in a time of scarcity; for it is observed, in tame pies and daws kept about houses, that they will hide their meat when they have plenty, and fetch it from their hiding-places when they want it. Such an instinct, therefore, in birds, may answer a double purpose, both their own support in times of need, and the propagation of the trees they plant; for, whenever they hide a great number of nuts or grain in the earth, we cannot suppose they find them all again, but that as many will remain in the plat of ground they make use of, as can well grow by one another. I shall add to this observation concerning the natural dispersion of seeds, that Providence has been amazingly bountiful in the wonderful increase of seed in many vegetables; insomuch, that with proper culture, the face of the whole earth might be covered, in a very few years, from the seed of a single plant.

No. XXX.

ON VARIOUS PHENOMENA IN THE VEGETABLE

KINGDOM.

Admiration, feeding at the eye,

And still unsated, dwells upon the theme.

COWPER.

THE vegetable kingdom, considered in various points of view, exhibits innumerable phenomena,

which excite great variety of sentiment and inexhaustible conjecture-Among these, the curious botanist will not fail to observe the locomotive faculty which vegetables possess, the extreme sensibility of some, and that remarkable phenomenon, in particular, which is called the sleep of plants.

That power of changing place, which is called the locomotive faculty, is not peculiar to animals. Examples of different kinds of motion are to be discovered in the vegetable kingdom. When the roots of the tree, for instance, meet with a stone, or any other obstruction to their motion, in order to avoid it, they change their former direction. They will turn, moreover, from barren to fertile earth, which indicates something analogous to a selection of food; and when confined to a house, they will uniformly bend toward the window, or aperture, through which the rays of light are introduced.

The Mimosa, or Sensitive Plant, possesses the faculty of motion in a very eminent degree. On the slightest touch its leaves suddenly contract, and the branch bends towards the earth. The ingenious Darwin, in his Botanic Garden,' thus describes this delicate plant:

Weak with nice sense, the chaste Mimosa stands,
From each rude touch withdraws her timid hands;
Oft as light clouds o'erpass the summer-glade,
Alarmed she trembles at the moving shade;
And feels alive through all her tender form,
The whispered murmurs of the gathering storm ;
Shuts her sweet eyelids to approaching night,
And hails with freshened charms the rising light.
Veiled, with gay decency and modest pride;
Slow to the mosque she moves, an eastern bride;
There her soft vows unceasing love record,
Queen of the bright seraglio of her lord,
So sinks or rises, with the changeful hour,
The liquid silver in its glassy tower;
So turns the needle to the pole it loves,
With fine librations quivering as it moves.

But the Hedysarum Gyrans, or Moving Plant, from the East Indies, where it is called Chundali Borrum, by the natives, exhibits the most astonishing example of vegetable motion. Its leaves are incessantly in spontaneous movement; some rising and others falling; and others whirling circularly by twisting their stems. Dr. Darwin, who places this plant, according to the Linnean or sexual system of Botany, in the class Diadelphia, two brotherhoods, ten males, thus describes the Hedysarum, in his beautifully fanciful account of the Loves of the Plants:

Fair Chunda smiles amid the burning waste,
Her brow unturbaned, and her zone unbraced;
Ten brother-youths with slight umbrellas shade,
Or fan with busy hands the panting maid;
Loose wave her locks disclosing as they break
The rising bosom and averted cheek;
Clasped round her ivory neck with studs of gold
Flows her thin vest in many a gauzy fold;

O'er her light limbs the dim transparence plays,
And the fair form, it seems to hide, displays.

The motions of the Hedysarum cease during the night, and when the weather is cold and cloudy. Our wonder is excited by the rapidity and constancy of the movements peculiar to this plant. The frequency, however, of similar motions in other plants, may render it probable that the leaves of all vegetables move, or are agitated by the rays of the sun, although many of these movements are too slow for our perception.

The American plant called Dionæa Muscipula, or Venus's Flytrap, affords another instance of rapid vegetable motion. Its leaves are jointed, and furnished with two rows of strong prickles. Their surfaces are covered with a number of minute glands, which secrete a sweet liquor, and allure the approach of flies. When these parts are touched by the legs of a fly, the two lobes of the leaf in

stantly rise up, the rows of prickles lock themselves fast together, and squeeze the unwary animal to death. If a straw or pin be introduced between the lobes, the same motions are excited. Dr. Darwin says, that the sweet viscous liquor just mentioned, is a curious contrivance of Nature, to prevent various insects from plundering the honey, or devouring the seed; and he thus poetically describes the plant and this its remarkable peculiarity:

The fell Silene and her sisters fair,

Skilled in destruction, spread the viscous snare,
The harlot-band ten lofty bravoes screen,
And frowning guard the magic nets unseen.
Haste, glittering nations, tenants of the air,
Oh, steer from hence your viewless course afar!
If with soft words, sweet blushes, nods, and smiles,
The three dread syrens lure you to their toils,
Limed by their art in vain you point your stings,
In vain the effort of your whirring wings!
Go, seck your gilded mates and infant hives,
Nor taste the honey purchased with your lives.

When a seed is sown in a reversed position, the young root turns downward to enter the earth, and the stem bends upward to ascend into the air. Confine a young stem to an inclined position, and its extremity will soon assume its former perpendicular direction. Twist a branch of any tree in such a manner that the inferior surfaces of the leaves are turned toward the sky, and, in a short time, all these leaves will resume their original position. These motions are performed sooner or later, in proportion to the degree of heat, and the flexibility of the leaves. Many leaves, as those of the mallow, follow the course of the sun. In the morning, their superior surfaces are presented to the east; at noon, they regard the south; and, when the sun

Three females and ten males inhabit each flower..