The Plane. 



great mortification, I found that 1 had got, after all, only 



about Jive or six hundred plants! I gently moved the top of 

 the ground in many places, saw that the seeds had struck, 

 covered over the places again, making sure that, as there 

 was a root already come, there would also come a plant. 

 I waited, however, in vain; for though the leaves of the 

 plants actually came out of the seed under the ground, only 

 the very few that I have mentioned ever made their appear- 

 ance above ground. 



469, I here request the reader to turn back to the account 

 of my experiments with regard to the Birch seed, which 

 account the reader will find in paragraphs 158, 159, 160 

 and 161. Accident led me to perceive, or I think I may 

 call it attentive observation, that Birch trees were to be 

 obtained by sowing the seeds upon the ground. Why then, 

 thought I, may it not be the same with regard to the seeds 

 of the Plane ? The form and substance of the seed seemed 

 to forbid the hope ; but, nevertheless. Planes must come 

 from the seeds dropped on the ground in America, and 

 I resolved to try the thing at any rate. 



470. The SEED of the Plane comes in a round ball, as 

 nearly as possible an inch in diameter, through the centre. 

 The seed itself is in the form of a round tiail without a head, 

 tapering from the hammer end to the point ; it is about 

 two thirds of an inch long; the point of it has a parcel of 

 stuff like cotton wool attached to it, and this is packed 

 round a little hard ball in the centre of the large ball. The 

 seeds are so formed that the points of all of them go into 

 and are attached to a part of this wool, while their big 

 ends, pressed close together, form the circumference of 

 the ball. When the ball is ripe and dry, it tumbles to 

 pieces, or, falling from the tree, each seed finds a wing 



