JULY. 257 



yenesious plants, most of which have a downy egret, as 

 the dandelion, thistle, groundsel, &e. I do not know a 

 prettier sight than a dandelion seed floating along beneath 

 its feathery plume on a gentle breeze: now erect, now 

 lightly waving to one or the other side, yet still keeping its 

 position, like the car of a miniature balloon ; till at length 

 it slowly descends, and fixes itself in some crevice of the 

 earth, there to be nourished, far enough from its parent 

 flower. Some seeds have attached to them a broad thin 

 blade, (samara,) as the ash, maple, &c. which forces them 

 obliquely through the air, instead of perpendicularly : others 

 are jerked to a distance by a peculiar mechanism in the seed 

 vessel : others are carried to distances in the stomachs of 

 birds, their vegetative power increased, rather than destroyed, 

 by the process of digestion. All show a power at work, to 

 which the wisdom of man is foolishness. 



