NATURAL THEOLOGY. 385 



II. My second example I take from Withering's 

 Arrangement, vol. ii. 209, ed. 3. " The cuscuta 

 europcBa is a parasitical plant. The seed opens, 



and puts forth a little spiral body, which does not 

 seek the earth to take root, but climbs in a spiral 

 direction, from right to left, up other plants, from 

 which, by means of vessels, it draws its nourish- 

 ment." The " little spiral body " proceeding from 

 the seed is to be compared with the fibres which 

 seeds send out in ordinary cases ; and the compa- 

 rison ought to regard both the form of the threads 

 and the direction. They are straight; this is 

 spiral. They shoot downwards ; this points up- 

 wards. In the rule and in the exception we 

 equally perceive design.'**' 



^o' This statement is incorrect. When the seed of the cuscuta 

 opens, it puts forth a httle thread-shaped body, namely, a young 

 root, which, as in other plants, plunges into the earth, and from 

 t he opposite end elevates a young and slender stem. The latter 



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