1793- curious phenomena in natural history. 243 
vent the escape of the bearded or hygrometer oat, 
which twists itself out of the glume, and makes off, 
to the great ease of the Dalcarean peasant, its great 
cultivator, who is spared the trouble of threfhing 
it; but he must take cate to fhut the barn door, of 
his oats may stray to that of his neighbour: 
We see the very minute seeds of 14 genera of 
mfsoes, fungi, byfsus, and mucor, which float in the 
air like atoms, carried by the winds to all kind of 
Situations, even the tops of walls, houses &c. to 
take pofsefsion however only of such spots as are uns 
occupied, and which probably would even have re- 
mained barren, had not these lowly grovellers, 
which Linnzus calls the dabourers of the vegetable 
kingdom, prepared the ground for plants of a su- 
perior rank, protecting and watering them at. the 
$ame time, during their tender infancy; nay even 
the vegetable nobles, the proud trees of the forest, 
owe similar obligations in their tender years, to 
these same protecting and fostering plants, which 
inattentive man often treats with contempt, and re 
gards as a nuisance, with the no lefs useful insects 
and reptiles. 
Nature employs still other means for the necefsa- 
ry dispersion of seeds ; as rivers transport them from 
one province to another, whilst the sea wafts thom 
from their native, to foreign thores. Of the ex- 
istance of both these modes of conveyance, the in- 
defatigable Linnzeus, was convinced by his own acs 
curate observations. He found for example many Al- 
pine plants in Lapland, carried and planted by rivers 
thirty-six miles distant from their natural place of 
