seed-vessels of plants, few are, perhaps, more remark- 
able, or more strikingly display themselves as the 
workmanship of an intelligent artificer, than that 
which we meet with in the seeds of the Erodium 
cicutarium, moschatum, and some species of Gera- 
nium. The seeds of this genus surround the pistil 
at its base; each seed is covered with a distinct seed- 
coat peculiar to itself, which, after having inclosed 
the seed runs out in the form of a narrow appen- 
dage or tail, to the extremity of the style, to which it 
is slightly connected along its whole length, and 
which has five grooves or flutes to receive the five 
seeds w ith their appendages. Each of these appen- 
dages has the property of contracting itself into a 
spiral or screw-like form, when dry ; and of again 
extending itself into a right line, when moist. In 
short, it is a spiral spring, which lengthens or con- 
tracts itself alternately, as often, and in such propor- 
tion, as it happens to become wet or dry. The power 
first exerts itself when the seed and its appendage 
becomes dry, in consequence of arriving at maturity; 
when it gradually separates the seed from its parent 
plant. The seed, thus disengaged, is continually 
contracting and dilating itself, as the weather changes 
from wet to dry, and from dry to wet ; and by this 
means is kept in motion, till it is either destroyed 
by the vicissitudes of the seasons, or meets with 
some crevice in the earth, or some light porous spot, 
into which it can insinuate itself, and from thence, 
in due time, produce a new plant. All its manoeuvres 
may be seen in a short space of time, by alternately 
moistening and drying it, either in the sun, or by 
the warmth of a fire. 
Don’s Syst. Bot. v. 1, 718. 
