DISPERSION OF THE SEEDS OF PLANTS. 



The various provisions which have been devised 

 for the dispersion of the seeds of plants, and intro- 

 ducing them into proper situations for germination, 

 are not the least admirable portion of the wonderful 

 scheme of creation. Every class of beings appears 

 appointed by collateral means to promote these 

 designs; man, beasts, birds, and reptiles; and, for 

 aught we know, the very fishes, by consuming, 

 propagate the algae in the depths of the ocean. 

 Even insects, by the fecundation of plants, perform 

 an office equivalent to dissemination ; and the mul- 

 tiplied contrivances of hooks, awns, wings, &c., 

 and the elastic and hygrometric powers with which 

 seeds are furnished, manifest what infinite provision 

 has been made for the dispersion of seeds, and suc- 

 cessive production of the whole race of vegetation. 



The turreted puff (lycoperdon fornicatum) is 

 one of our rare cryptogamous plants. I have had 

 one specimen, in which the volvae or wrappers of 

 seven or eight individuals grew together, each 

 throwing out a head or capitulum, forming a clus- 

 ter the size of a doubled fist. It appears, from a 

 close examination of this plant, that the upper part 

 bearing the head was originally the inner skin or 

 lining of the wrapper^ which inclosed and shut it 

 in. Upon the bursting of the wrapper, this inner 

 skin peeled up, or loosened itself from the bottom, 

 and rising, became finally detached from the wrap- 

 per in every part excepting at the points of the 

 clefts, where it remained fixed ; in the same man- 

 ner as a man might be supposed able to pull up 



