( m ) 
a little foot-ftalk, which is the Radicle of the 
feed, as the leaves are the Plume. If the Co- 
tyledons of a bean be cut off, the young plant, 
being deprived of nutriment, is ftarved and 
dies, or becomes very weak ; grafs has it's 
Cotyledons under the ground, which pre- 
ferves them from definition ; fo has corn, 
which, however, is not fafe from all ene- 
mies; the wood-pigeon digs with her bill till 
fhe finds the Cotyledon of the corn, and then 
eats it, pleafed, probably, with the fweet tafte 
it has acquired in the procefs of germination 
as the Plume has fprouted. The care taken 
by nature for the prefervation and difperfion 
of feeds is admirable : in fome plants flie has 
wrapped them in foft down ; as, for inftance* 
in Cotton Plant, GolTy'pium ; the part from 
which our muflin drefles are made having 
originally formed the foft cradle of feeds ; as 
the material, of which our filks are made, was 
the cradle of an infe6t. Some feeds are nou- 
riflied and kept warm by the pulp of our 
fruits ; others are protected by foft hairs : in 
thiftles (carduus) they lie in a foft filklike 
fubftance, the down of the feed of artichoke 
(cy'nara) is particularly beautiful ; others are 
furrounded by what is termed an Aril. In 
C the 
