1JO STUDIES OF NATURE, 



card's in a, pack, and each of them flies off with 

 it's own little kernel. (See the annexed Plate.) 



The feeds of mountain-plants, which appear too 

 heavy for flying, are furni(hed with other refources. 

 The peafe of the balfamine have pods whofe elaf- 

 ticity darts them to a considerable diftance. There 

 is likewife a tree in India, the name of which I do 

 not now recollect, that, in like manner, discharges 

 it's feeds with a noife like that of a muiket fired 

 off. Thofe which have neither tufts, nor pinions, 

 nor fprings, and which, from their weight, feem 

 condemned to remain at the foot of the vegetable 

 which produced them, are, in very many cafes, 

 thofe which travel the fartheft. They fly off with 

 the wings of a bird. It is thus that a multitude 

 of berries and (hell-fruits re-fow themfelves. Their 

 feeds are inclofed in ftony incrustations, not ca- 

 pable of being djgefled. They are fwallowed by 

 the birds, which carry them off, and plant them in 

 the cornices of towers, in the clefts of rocks, on 

 the trunks of trees, beyond rivers, nay, beyond 

 oceans. By fuch means it was that a bird of the 

 Moluccas re-peopled, with the nutmeg plant, the 

 defert iflands of that archipelago, in defiance of 

 all the efforts of the Dutch, who deftroy thofe 

 trees in every place where they cannot be fubfer- 

 vient to their own commerce. 



This 



