a v g r s t. 217 



the Erica vulgare, or common heath, still adorn 

 wastes, fields, and waysides. The pink- an d- 

 white convolvulus has been one of the chief 

 ornaments of summer, flowering in the dryest 

 spots, where all around is brown from extreme 

 drought, with cheerful beauty. A i'ew clusters 

 of honeysuckles may yet be seen, here and 

 there, on the hedges. And the antirrhinum 

 linaria, or common toad-flax is in full flower in 

 the thickets. 



It may not be out of place here to notice that 

 singular property of seeds by which they are 

 preserved in the ground for ages. It appears 

 from certain circumstances that when they are 

 buried below that particular depth at which 

 they feel the influence of the atmosphere and 

 consequently vegetate, they are in a state of 

 preservation which may and does often con- 

 tinue for centuries, perhaps, for aught we know 

 to the contrary, to the end of the world, if un- 

 disturbed ; certainly, however, to an amazing 

 extent of time. By this beautiful law of the 

 all-wise Creator, the vegetable tribes are never 

 likely to be lost. However cultivation or care- 

 lessness may tend to extirpate certain species, 

 their seeds lie in myriads in the treasury of the 

 earth, and some event such as we sometimes 

 witness, the lowering of a hill, the cutting of 

 a single turf, exposes them to the action of the 



