FLOWER UNDER GROUND. 



4T3 



of the river Potowmac, in Virginia, through a rich 

 bottom of low ground, covered with trees, particu- 

 larly oak, poplar, and walnut, several of which trees 

 were from three to four feet through, between five 

 and six feet under ground, chiefly a loamy, solid clay, 

 discovered a blossom, not in full bloom, nearly of the 

 colour of the lilac. On examination it proved to be 

 a similar flower to one that grew upon the surface of 

 the ground, near the place from whence it was dug. 

 The body of earth, where the plant was found, must 

 have been formed perhaps some centuries, judging 

 from the size of the trees which it contained. 



In communicating this account to the American 

 Philosophical Society (from whose transactions it is 

 taken) Dr. Barton observes " I see no good reason 

 to doubt the accuracy of the observation. We have 

 abundant proof, that many species of animals are ca- 

 pable of subsisting, for a long time, in the dowels of 

 the earth, though the surface of the earth appears 

 to be, and no doubt is, the natural place of residence 

 of these very animals. Why, then, should we doubt, 

 that the same species of vegetables are capable of ac~ 

 commodating themselves to these two situations? It 

 is never safe, nor right, to draw extensive inferences 

 from solitary facts, especially when those facts are 

 somewhat equivocally related. But in some sciences 

 (I mean those which are merely speculative) conjec- 

 tures, however improbable or feeble, cannot do 

 much harm. Perhaps many of those impressions 

 of vegetables upon slate, freestone, coal, and other 

 stony matters, which are so abundantly diffused 

 through the earth, are the impressions of vegetabien 



