26 1* LETTER XXII. 



bottle {Jiy. 5.), but it has become a hard 3-cornered 

 brown nut, with a thickish shell, and one seed stand- 

 ing erect in its cavity (Jig. 7- «•)• ^^ ^^^ ^^^ embryo 

 it is totally different from that of Grasses, it neither 

 lies on the outside of the albumen, nor is it shaped at 

 all like it ; it is a minute roundish undivided body 

 (fiff. 8.), which is buried in the lower end of the 

 albumen. It really would seem as if the small com- 

 parative utility of these plants was indicated by the 

 little care that nature has taken to ensure the growth 

 of their seeds by extraordinary precautions. 



It is to the Sedge tribe that most of those plants 

 belong, which are popularly considered Rushes, and 

 which afford the materials of the manufacture of 

 candles, mats, and chairs ; the Club-rush in parti- 

 cular (Scirpus lacustris), which sometimes grows as 

 much as nine feet high, is the species that is collected 

 for such purposes. They are chiefly found on wet 

 commons, or in marshy, or swampy places. The 

 most remarkable of the wild kinds is the Cotton-grass 

 (Eriophorum), the long silky white hairs of whose 

 fruit look exactly like tufts of cotton blowing about in 

 the wind. 



Here ends my explanation of the organization of 

 those plants which, because they are increased by the 

 action of an apparatus consisting of calyx, corolla, 

 stamens, and pistil, and forming what we call a flower, 

 are called flowering. 



The remainder of the Vegetable Kingdom consists 

 of species wholly destitute of flowers, and increased by 

 organs totally different in their nature from fruit and 



