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* this poor plant a thousand times. Its blossom rises out of the ground in the 

 most forlorn condition possible ; without a sheath, a fence, a calyx, or even a leaf to 

 protect it ; and that not in 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 ten or twelve inches under 

 ground 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 always reach the seed-vessel ; but it is in this, by an elongation unknown to 

 any other plant. All these singularities contribute to one end. In the autumn 

 nothing is done above ground but the business of impregnation. 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 of the earth. Seeds, though perfected, would be 

 unable to vegetate at this depth in the earth. A second admirable provision is 

 therefore made to raise them above the surface ; 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 sur- 

 face." 



From the outline here exhibited of the vital economy and peculiar structure of 

 this plant, it is conceived, that, without overstraining the subject, the argument 

 may be carried some steps further, and that we may reasonably infer that there is 

 design in the mode of its flowering ; in the provision made for its reproduction, in 

 case of the germen remaining unfertilized ; and also, in the relative position of the 

 embryonic germ or bulb. 



First. — There is evidence of design in the mode of flowering. The delicate 

 flowers expanding their petals, as the harbingers of winter, without the protection 

 of leaves or other envelope, exposed to the ungenial influence of a changeful sea- 

 son, when scarcely any other plant ventures to blossom, run many risks of being 

 prevented from attaining their destined end, either from the nipping keenness of 

 early frosts, the rude and crushing tread of cattle feeding on the pasturage in which 

 they grow, or the playful and innocent wantonness of heedless childhood cropping 

 the. showy blossoms to deck their baby-toys. Nature here, therefore, steps in and 

 provides a remedy. For, unlike most other plants, this does not expand all its 

 blossoms at the same time, but reserves, as it were, a portion, to be resorted to only 

 in cases of necessity. Should injury overtake it in its prime of beauty, a second 

 flower is provided, which, supplied with nutriment from the parent-bulb, is pushed 

 forward and takes the place of its unfortunate predecessor. Should this also 

 be destroyed, a third floret (Fig. 1, n) is often visible at the base of the other two, 



