NATURAL THEOLOGY. 193 



flower. There is a similar fact with respect to the 

 beautiful shrub which many call the sheep kill or 

 lamb kill ; botanists, the Jcalmia. The ends of the 

 stamens are bent back and protected in little depres- 

 sions upon the inside of the cup of the flower, until, at 

 the proper time, they suddenly liberate themselves 

 from their confinement, and dash the pollen with 

 great force upon the pointal. In the barberry bush, 

 (Berberis), the stamens shelter themselves under 

 the leaves of the flowers, whose tips bend over a lit- 

 tle to receive them, till some little insect in search of 

 honey, happens to touch them at the bottom, when they 

 dart forward, like a sprung trap, and discharge their 

 dust upon the pointal in the same way, and this 

 operation may be repeated in the same flower. Dif- 

 ferent species of flowers float entirely under water, 

 often at some considerable depth, when they rise near 

 the surface, and throw up their flower spikes above 

 it, and sinking afterwards to ripen and sow their seeds 

 at the bottom. 



There are some plants in which the pollen could 

 not easily perform its office, if it were not for a spe- 

 cial provision. In the Indian corn the pointals, (or 

 silk,) are quite remote from the stamens (or the bran- 

 ches of the spindles) ; and not only so, the broad 

 leaves of the pi ant would be likely to intercept the 

 dust and prevent it from falling in the right p lace : 

 in some trees and vegetables the pointals are upon 

 one, and the stamens upon another, as in the pine, 

 nut, mulberry, &c. There is a provision against 

 R 



