3^g2 TRANSACTIONS OF THE iLLINOIiJ 



springing from these seeds iiisinudlc iheii lihies inti) the woody substance 

 of the tree from which this parasite draws its hfe and maintenance. 

 Another marked instance of rare mechanical action is in the Autumnal 

 Crocus [Cholcicuiii aulttmnaU). How I have sympathized with this poor 

 plant. Its blossom rises out of the ground in the most forlorn condition 

 possible, without a sheath, calvx, or cap to protect it, and that, too, not 

 in spring, to be visited by the summer sun, but under all the disadvan- 

 tages of a declining year. When we come to look more closely at its 

 mechanical organism, we find that, instead of being neglected, nature 

 has gone out of her way to provide for its security, and make up for all 

 its defects. The seed vessel which, in other plants, is situated within 

 the end of the tlower, or just beneath it, in this plant is buried ten or 

 twelve inches underground, in a bulbous root. The styles always reach 

 the seed vessel, but in this by an elongation unknown in other plants. 

 All these singularities contribute to one end. As this plant blossoms 

 late in the year, and would not have time to ripen its seeds before the 

 access of winter would destroy them, Providence has contrived its struc- 

 ture such that this important office may be performed at a depth in the 

 earth out of reach of the eflects of ordinary frosts. In the autumn 

 nothing is done above the ground but the blooming and fertilization. 

 The maturation of the impregnated seed, which in other plants proceeds 

 within the capsule exposed with the rest of the flower to the open air, is 

 here carried on during the winter within the earth below the reach of 

 ordinary frost. Here a new difficulty must be overcome. The seeds, 

 though perfected, are known not to vegetate at this depth in the earth. 

 The seeds, therefore, though so safely lodged through the winter, would 

 after all be lost to the purpose to which all seeds are intended. To 

 overcome this difficulty, another admirable provision is made to raise 

 them above the surface and sow them at a proper distance. Tn the spring 

 the germ grows up upon a fruit-stalk accompanied with canes. The 

 seeds now% in common with those of other plants, have the benefit ot 

 summer, and are sown upon the surface. 



" How great and marvelous are His works," and how carefully are 

 the minute details of all His creatures, animate and inanimate, provided 

 for. Relation of parts one to another is and must be harmonious in 

 mechanics, so in the animal economy, so in the vegetable world. None 

 of the works of the Deity want these harmonious relations of parts and 

 offices. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON ORNITHOLOGY. 



Mr. Secretary : 



I call on you as my witness, to prove that I have tried hard to evade 

 the handing in of a report on this subject; that I came to you privately 

 and told you that I had not written a report, and begged of you not to 

 call for it ; that when you did call for it, you found that I had slipped 

 out of the house; and that I did not write it till you had written to me 

 some weeks after the adjournment of our meeting insisting that I must 



