JULY. 
257 
genesious plants^, most of which have a downy egret^ as 
the dandelion^ thistle^ groundsel, &c. I do not know a 
prettier sight than a dandelion seed floating along beneath 
its feathery plume on a gentle breeze: now erect, now 
lightly waving to one or the other side, yet still keeping its 
position, like the car of a miniature balloon ; till at length 
it slowly descends, and fixes itself in some crevice of the 
earth, there to be nourished, far enough from its parent 
flower. Some seeds have attached to them a broad thin 
blade, ( samara,) as the ash, maple, &c. which forces them 
obliquely through the air, instead of perpendicularly : others 
are jerked to a distance by a peculiar mechanism in the seed 
vessel : others are carried to distances in the stomachs of 
birds, their vegetative power increased, rather than destroyed, 
by the process of digestion. All show a power at work, to 
which the wisdom of man is foolishness. 
