NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



387 



Of no other plant do the roots refuse to shoot in 

 the ground ; of no other plant do the seeds pos- 

 sess this adhesive, generative quality, when ap- 

 plied to the bark of trees.'"^ 



IV. Another instance of the compensatory sys- 

 tem is in the autumnal crocus, or meadow saffron, 

 {colchicum autumnale.) I have pitied this poor 

 plant a thousand times. Its blossom rises out of 

 the ground in the most forlorn condition possible ; 

 without a sheath, a fence, a calyx, or even a leaf 

 to protect it : and that, not in the spring, to be 

 visited by summer suns, but under all the disad- 

 vantages of the declining year. When we come, 



however, to look more closely into the struct ure 

 of this plant, we find that, instead of its being ne- 



^°^ These statements are true, not only of the misseltoe or v is- 

 cum actum, but of the whole natural order Loranlhacct, with one 

 exception. 



