OF PLANTS. 209 



IV. Another instance of the compensatory system is in 

 the autumnal crocus or meadow saffron, (colchicum autum- 

 nale.) (PI. XXXVII.) I liave pitied this poor plant a 

 thousand times. Its blossom rises out of the ground in the 

 most forlorn condition possible, without a sheath, a fence, 

 a calyx, or even a leaf to protect it ; and that not in the 

 spring, not to be visited by summer suns, but under all the 

 disadvantages of the declining year. When we come how- 

 ever to look more closely into the structure of this plant, 

 we find, that instead of its being neglected, nature has 

 gone out of her course to provide for its security, and to 

 make up to it for all its defects. The seed-vessel, which in 

 other plants is situated within the cup of the flower, or just 

 beneath it, in this plant lies buried ten or twelve inches 

 under ground within the bulbous root. The tube of the 

 flower, which is seldom more than a few tenths of an inch 

 long, in this plant extends down to the root. The stiles 

 always reach the seed-vessel ; but it is in this, by an elon- 

 gation unknown to any other plant. All these singularities 

 contribute to one end. " As this plant blossoms late in 

 the year, and, probably, would not have time to ripen its 

 seeds before the access of winter, which would destroy them, 

 Providence has contrived its structure such, that this im- 

 portant office may be performed at a depth in the earth out 

 of the reach of the usual effects of frost.* That is to say, 

 in the autumn nothing is done above ground but the busi- 

 ness of impregnation ; which is an affair between the an- 

 therae and the stigmata. The maturation of the impregnated 

 seed, which in other plants proceeds within a capsule, ex- 

 posed together with the rest of the flower to the open air, 

 is here carried on, and during the whole winter, within 

 the heart, as we may say, of the earth ; that is, " out of 

 the reach of the usual effects of frost." But then a new 

 difficulty presents itself. Seeds, though perfected, are 

 known not to vegetate at this depth in the earth. Our 

 seeds, therefore, though so safely lodged, would, after all, 

 be lost to the purpose for which all seeds are intended. 

 Lest this should be the case, " a second admirable provis- 

 ion is made to raise them above the surface when they are 

 perfected, and to sow them at a proper distance :" viz. the 

 germ grows up in the spring, upon a fruit stalk, accom- 

 panied with leaves. The seeds now, in common with 



* Withering, ubi supra, p. 360. 



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