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look more closely into the structure of this 

 plant, we find that, instead of its being neg- 

 lected, nature has gone out of her course to 

 provide for its security, and to make up to' it 

 for all its defects. The seed-vessels, which in 

 other plants are situated within the cup of the 

 flower, or just beneath it, in this plant lie 

 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 styles in all cases reach the seed-vessels; 

 but it is in this by an elongation unknown to 

 any other plant. All these singularities contri- 

 bute 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 important 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 business of impregnation; 

 which is an affair between the antherae and the 

 stigmata, and is probably soon over. The ma- 

 turation of the impregnated seed, which in other 



