YOL. XXI.l PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 369 



inf parts by the wind. This is so effectual a way, that the aster Canadensis 

 annuus non descriptus Brunner, Hort. Bles. p. 10, or Conyza annua alba acris, 

 Morris, which came at first from Canada, is now become a wild plant in many 

 places of Europe, where it never was observed to grow, and far from the gardens 

 where it was first planted, whence the seed had been carried by its wings, so 

 that I have seen it in some parts of France, many leagues from such places. 



There are likewise many plants with seed-vessels so contrived, as with a 

 spring, and sometimes smart noise, when they are ripe, to throw off their seeds 

 several ways, to a considerable distance ; most plants having pods, as furze, &c. 

 those called, noli me tangere, or herbas impatientes, cucumis anguinus, cranes- 

 bills, and many others, have this mechanism to sow themselves. Among those 

 that have this property, none is more surprising than one in Jamaica, called 

 spirit-weed, which when its seed is ripe, the vessel containing it, on the least 

 touch of whatever is wet, instantly opens, and with a smart noise throws its 

 seeds several ways to a considerable distance. Lychnises, poppies, antirrhinums, 

 and many others, have their seeds in heads, which when ripe, are open at top, 

 and by the winds, and help of their partitions, are scattered and directed to all 

 quarters. Many similar instances might be adduced. 



Of a Foetus lying without the IFomb. By Dr. Fern. N° 251, p. 121. 

 A woman Q months gone with her 5th child was received into the Hotel 

 Dieu, being then about 34 years of age, and of a tender constitution. The 

 midwife who examined her body, found a considerable tumor on the right side, 

 near the navel, which very much resembled a child's head, her belly below that 

 place bearing no proportion to that above, or to the time of her pregnancy. 

 On the left side there was nothing singular. The midwife thought she felt 

 through the vagina, a thick membrane filled and distended with water, and in 

 it the heel of a child, bent towards the thigh ; but she could not be assured 

 whether this was within the womb or not, because the inner orifice was drawn 

 so high, under the os pubis, that she could not, without some difficulty, touch 

 it with the end of her finger. Upon trying some time after, she could not dis- 

 cern any thing like the foetus she had before felt. On inquiry she was informed 

 by the patient, that for the first six weeks of her pregnancy she had great and 

 continual pains, which shot towards the navel, and terminated there, and these 

 lasted till the 3d month ; that from thence to the 6th she had frequent convul- 

 sions, apoplectic fits, terrible syncopes, which had very much frightened those 

 about her, so that they despaired of her life ; that from the Gth to the 8th 

 month, she had enjoyed a much better health, which in some measure had 

 strengthened both her and her infant ; that the pains she had endured since tliat 



