AGRICULTURE AND PLANTING. 15 



On the Structure of Vegetables. 



layers, they can only cover contiguous spots. 



But numerous and wonderful are the methods, which nature has employed 

 for the dissemination of seeds. Some seeds are furnished with a plume, a^wing, a 

 tail, an awn, hooks, gluten, and curvature. Other seeds are different, from the 

 shape and other circumstances of the pericarpium; a:s berrying, inflation, viscositj', 

 elasticity, structure, &c. Hence the dissemination of seeds must be very apparent. 



Some seeds by their plumes, their wings, and their tails, fly about from 

 place to place, and are de[iosited on high towers, and in distant countries. Other 

 seeds by their awns and hooks, lay hold of animals that come near them, and are 

 spread far and near. The gluten of some seeds attaches itself to the hair or fea- 

 thers of animals and are thereby planted upon high and distant trees. Many of 

 the berrying seeds are the food of birds : the pulp is their aliment; and they dis- 

 charge the seeds uninjured, and spread them every where; upon high towers, 

 impending clifts, and upon inaccessible precipices. 



The pericarpium of some plants bursts with an explosive force, and their 

 seed is thrown to a very great distance. 



Many other agents are employed by nature to stock the earth with plants. 



The sea and rivers waft more seeds than they do sails. 



In short, the formation of the organs for sexual generation in vegetables, 

 seems to be the chef d' oeuvre, the master piece of nature; and no other method is 

 necessary, nor so easy, to fill the ea/th with plants, as by seeds, suckers and layers. 

 Farewell then to equivocal generation. 



2. On the component Principles of Vegetables. 



JL HE structure of the glands of animals has not been yet fully ascertained; 



and the vessels of vegetables being still more minute, and rigid, the structure of 



"their glands is still further removed from our discovery. 'J heir effects arc !\o\\ - 



ever as evident, as those of the glands of animals in the secretion or pr(;(lucli<iiitu 



their various fluids. 



