of this description is often found on the chrysalis of the cicada, sometimes even on the cicada itself. The 
root of the plant in general covers the body of the insect, and occasionally extends over its head. When 
these singular productions have been for some time preserved in spirits, the plant and chrysalis may be 
readily separated from each other. 
The vegetable fly of the Caribbee islands is of a similar description. It was formerly supposed to be 
entirely an animal production, and that in the latter end of May the insect, resembling a drone in colour 
and appearance, buried itself in the earth, from whence it rose again in a vegetable form. 
Dr. Hill having carefully examined several vegetable flies, ascertained the incorrectness of this opinion, 
and has thus stated the result of his investigation. The cicada is common to Martinique, and in its state of 
a nymph, in which the old authors call it let tigometra, it buries itself under dead leaves to wait its change ; 
and when the season is unfavourable, many perish. The seeds of the clavaria find a proper bed in the body 
or chrysalis of the insect, and soon begin to germinate, whence the untaught inhabitants conjectured that the 
fly itself sprang up into a little tree, and some naturalists have figured the cicada flying with a trefoliate 
plant upon its back. 
A variety of interesting plants of various descriptions are peculiar to bog-soil, and will not grow in any 
other. One of the most elegant of these is the Andromeda polifolia , or marsh-cistus. It is found in the 
north of England, and grows profusely in the marshy grounds of Lapland, which it decorates in the most 
agreeable manner. The flowers are blood-red before they expand, but when full grown the corollas are of 
a flesh-colour. It would be scarcely possible for any painter’s art to imitate the lovely hue of this capti- 
vating little flower. When Linnaeus observed it in the marshy lands of Lapland, he could not help com- ' 
paring it to Andromeda, as described by the poets ; and the more he considered their descriptions., the 
more applicable they appeared ; so much so, indeed, that had the antient poets been acquainted with the 
marsh-cistus, they could scarcely have contrived a more apposite fable. The plant is always found on some 
little turfy hillock, in the midst of swamps, as Andromeda herself was chained to a rock in the sea, which 
bathed her feet, as the fresh water does the roots of the cistus. Dragons and venemous serpents surrounded 
her, as toads and other reptiles the abode of her vegetable prototype, and throw mud and water over its 
leaves and branches. As Andromeda cast down her blushing head through excessive affliction, so does the 
rosy- coloured flower hang its head, growing paler and paler till it withers away. At length Perseus, in the 
shape of summer, dries'up the surrounding water, and destroys the monsters, restoring the damsel to liberty 
who then carries her head (the capsule) erect. 
Many of Our native plants appear independant of soil and situation, and are apparently endowed with 
instinctive motions, by means of which they are enabled to obviate every local inconvenience. The bryonia 
dioica, or red-berried bryony, which so often wanders over stony banks, and forms a beautiful drapery of 
lively green, gracefully diversified with small yellowish^hite flowers, is furnished with voluble stems, and 
twines round other plants from east to south-west. This is also invariably the case with the humulus lupulus, 
or common hop; th e lonicia periclymenum, or common honeysuckle ; the tamus communis, or lady-sea], and 
many others ; whilst different kinds of creeping plants, such as the convolvulus arvensis, and sepium, or small 
and great bindweed ; phaseolus, or kidney bean, &e., turn their spiral stems from west to south-east. 
The branches of the honeysuckle shoot longitudinally, till they become unable to bear their own weight, 
and then strengthen themselves by changing into a spiral form. When they meet with other living branches 
of the same kind, they coalesce for mutual support, and one spiral turns to the right and the other to the 
left ; thus seeking, by an instinctive impulse, some object on which to climb, and increasing the probability 
of finding one by the diversity of their course ; for if the auxiliary branch be dead, the other uniformly 
winds itself round from right to left. 
The seeds of the cuscuta Europcea, or greater dodder, open when ripe, and put forth a little spiral, which 
does not seek the earth to take root, but climbs up other plants, from which, fry means of vessels, it draws 
its nourishment. When sown in a pot the dodder produces seeds, but the plants invariably die, unless they 
can attach themselves to something else. As soon as the roots have twined round an adjoining plant, they 
send out from their inner Surface a number of little vesicles or papillee, which fix themselves to the bark or 
rind. By degrees the longitudinal vessels of the stalk, which appear to have accompanied the vessels, shoot 
forth from their extremities, and make their way into the foster-plant, by dividing the vessels and insinuating 
themselves into the tenderest part of the stalk, in so intimate a manner as to be united with it. 
Thus throughout the vegetable world a perfect system of mutual dependence every where subsists. The 
strong assist the weak, and the helpless plant which is unable to support itself, never seeks, without obtain- 
ing, the assistance of the great and powerful. What a beautiful and important lesson for the human race ! 
