124 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



Nature has (till other means of multfplying the 

 reflexes of heat in flowers. Sometimes (he places 

 them on (terns of no great elevation, in order to 

 collect warmth from the reflections of the Earth ; 

 ibmetimes ihe glazes over their corollas with a 

 fhining varnifh, as the yellow meadow-ranunculus, 

 known by the trivial name of butter-flower. Some-' 

 times (he withdraws the corolla, and makes the 

 parts of fecundation to (hoot from the partition of 

 an ear, of a cone, or of the branch of a tree. The 

 forms of the fpike, and of the cone, appear to be 

 the belt adapted for reverberating on them the ac- 

 tion of the Sun, and to enfure their fructification ; 

 for they always prefent fome one fide or another 

 fheltered from the cold. Nay, it is very remark- 

 able, that the aggregation of flowers, in a conical 

 and fpike form, is very common to herbs and to 

 trees of the North, and rarely to be found in thofe 

 of the South. Mod of the gramineous plants 

 which I have (een in fouthern Countries, do not 

 carry their grains in a fpike, or clofely compacted 

 ear, but in flowing tufts, and divided into a mul- 

 titude of particular (terns, as the millet and rice. 

 The maize, or Turkey-corn, I admit, bears it's 

 grains in a large ear ; but that ear is for a con- 

 liderable time (hut up in a bag ; and on burlting 

 from it, pufhes away over it's head a long covering 

 of hair, which feems entirely deftined to the pur- 



pofe 



