144 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



male flowers, unlefs, at the feafon of their florifU 

 cation, the wind blew from various quarters. Won- 

 derful to be told ! There are invariable genera- 

 tions depending on the variablenefs of the wind. 

 Hence I prefume, that in countries where the 

 winds always blow from the fame quarter, as be- 

 tween the Tropics, this fpecies of florification muft 

 be uncommon ; and if it be found there at all, it 

 muft be regulated precifely according to the feafon 

 when thofe regular winds vary. 



It is impoflible to entertain a doubt refpecting 

 thofe admirable relations, however remote they 

 may appear, when we obferve the attention with 

 which Nature has preferved flowers from the 

 fhocks to which they might be expofed, from the 

 winds themfelves, upon their items. She inwraps 

 them, for the mod part, in an integument, which 

 Botanifts call the calix. The more ramous the 

 plant is, the thicker is the calix of it's flower. 

 She fometimes fringes it with little cufhions and 

 beards, as may be feen in the rofe-bud. Thus the 

 mother puts a pad round the head of her little 

 child, to fecure it againlt accidents from falling. 

 Nature has fo clearly marked her intention as to 

 this, in the cafe of the flowers of ramous plants, that 

 fhe has deprived of this clothing fuch as grow on 

 Items that are not branchy, and where they are in 

 no danger from the agitation of the winds. This 



may 



