240 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



summer, and are sown upon the surface. The order of 

 vegetation externally is this : the plant produces its flowers 

 in Septemher ; its leaves and fruits in the spring following. 



V. I give the account of the dio?icca inuscipula, an 

 extraordinary American plant, as some late authors have 

 related it ; but whether we be yet enough acquainted with 

 the plant to bring every part of this account to the test of 

 repeated and familiar observation, I am unable to say. " Its 

 leaves are jointed, and furnished v/ith two rows of strong 

 prickles ; their surfaces covered with a number of minute 

 glands, which secrete a sweet liquor that allures the ap- 

 proach of flies. When these parts are touched by the legs 

 of flies, the two lobes of the leaf instantly spring up, the 

 rows of prickles lock themselves fast together, and squeeze 

 the unwary animal to death."^ Here, under a new model, 

 we recognize the ancient plan of nature, namely, the rela- 

 tion of parts and provisions to one another, to a common 

 office, and to the utility of the organized body to which they 

 belong. The attracting syrup, the rows of strong prickles, 

 their position so as to interlock the joints of the leaves, and, 

 what is more than the rest, that singular irritabihty of theii 

 surfaces, by which they close at a touch, all bear a con- 

 tributory part in producing an eflect, connected either with 

 iLe defence or with the nutrition of the plant. 



♦ Smellie's Philosophy of Natural History, vol. I., p. 5. 



