210 MEMOIR on THE PLANTS cALriepD 
I endeavoured gently to take off the opercule with my fin- 
gers, which was very eafily done, as the bloffom was ful- 
ly ripe. The opercule having fallen off, the cilia which 
detained it being thus free, and loofened from their former 
{tate of tenfion, I was a witnefs to their curious manner of 
operating : they were in an almoft continual convulfive 
agitation, and contraction, approaching to, and alternate- 
ly receding from, the internal cilia, which feemed to me 
to open a little towards their extremity, at the fame time 
that the others contracted themfelves by a contrary moti- 
on. I diftinétly obferved the pollen thrown out through 
the fpace that opened between the internal cilia, near 
their bafis, as faft as the external cilia fell back. Hence,, 
it occurred to me that the pofition and motion of thefe va- 
rious organs are intended to reftrain the impetuofity of 
the pollen: and if we confider how the pollen and _ feeds. 
are difpofed, it will be eafy to conceive that the former 
cannot come out without meeting the latter. Thus, na- 
ture, ever confiftent in her produtions, has formed thefe — 
cilia to moderate the convulfive emiflion of the pollen, and 
to bring it into contact with the feeds before it efcapes. 
There is nothing more admirable than the operations of 
nature in thefe little plants. I have made the fame expe- 
riment on an infinite variety of moffes, and it has always 
fucceeded when the bloffom had attained its full maturity. 
I have repeated it in the prefence of feveral perfons, as well 
as in private for my own amufement, and every time, I had 
additional reafon to admire the wife difpofitions of the 
Great Lord of the Univerfe, who, by conftant and by uni- 
form rules, preferves and multiplies all the individuals of 
his Creation. 
O JEHOVA, 
