208 OF PLANTS. 



furnished with an elastic, spiral stalk, which extends or 

 contracts as the water rises or falls ; this rise or fall, from 

 the torrents which flow into the river, often amounting to 

 many feet in a few hours. The flowers of the male plant 

 are produced under water; and, as soon as the fecundat- 

 ing ferina is mature, they separate themselves from the 

 plant ; rise to the surface ; and are wafted by the air, or 

 borne by the currents, to the female flowers." Our atten- 

 tion in this narrative will be directed to two particulars; 

 first, to the mechanism, the "elastic, spiral stalk," which 

 lengthens or contracts itself according as the water rises or 

 falls ; secondly, to the provision which is made for bring- 

 ing the male flower, which is produced under w'ater, to the 

 female flower, which floats upon the surface. 



II. My second example I take from Withering. (Ar- 

 rang. vol. ii. p. 209. ed. 3.) " The cuscuta europcE is a para- 

 sitical plant. (Plate XXXVI.) The seed opens, and puts 

 forth a little spiral body which does not seek the earth to 

 take root , but climbs in a spiral direction, from right to left, 

 up other plants, from which, by means of vessels, it draws its 

 nourishment." The "little spiral body" proceeding from 

 the seed is to be compared with the fibres which seeds 

 send out in ordinary cases; and the comparison ought to 

 regard both the form of the threads and the direction. They 

 are straight; this is spiral. They shoot downwards; this 

 points upwards. In the rule, and in the exception, we 

 equally perceive design. 



III. A better known parasitical plant is the evergreen 

 shrub, called the misseltoe. What we have to remark in it, 

 is a singular instance of compensation. No art has yet 

 made these plants take root in the earth. Here therefore 

 might seem to be a mortal defect in their constitution. Let 

 us examine how this defect is made up to them. The 

 seeds are endued with an adhesive quality so tenacious, 

 that, if they be rubbed upon the smooth bark of almost 

 any tree, they will stick to it. And then what follows ? 

 Roots springing from these seeds, insinuate their fibres in- 

 to the woody substance of the tree ; and the event is, that 

 a misseltoe plant is produced next winter;* of no other 

 plant do the roots refuse to shoot in the ground ; of no other 

 plant do the seeds possess this adhesive, generative quali- 

 ty, when applied to the bark of trees. 



* Withering, Bot. Arr. vol. i. p. 203, ed. 2d. 



