28 
PLANTS. 
sign in respect to the care which Nature takes to 
nourish the embryo plant, than in the jacobean 
lily. This is a familiar example, and worth a 
hundred of those which can easily be recorded, but 
with difficulty put to the proof. The pistil in this 
plant (when sufficient heat is given it to make it 
flower in perfection) is bent downwards, and from 
its stigma issues a drop of limpid fluid, so large 
that one would think it in danger of falling to the 
ground. It is, however, gradually reabsorbed into 
the style about three or four o’clock, and becomes 
invisible till about ten the next morning, when it 
appears again ; by noon it attains its largest di- 
mensions ; and in the afternoon, by a gentle and 
scarcely perceptible decrease, it returns to its source. 
If we shake the antherae over the stigma, so that 
the pollen may fall on this limpid drop, we see the 
fluid soon after become turbid, and assume a yellow 
colour ; and we perceive little rivulets, or opake 
streaks, running from the stigma towards the rudi- 
ments of the seed. Thus is the little germ, which 
is seated at the bottom of the pistil, nourished and 
brought to maturity by a process as simple as it is 
obvious. 
Among those instances which may be brought 
forward to prove how carefully the tender parts of 
plants are defended from injury, is the autumnal 
crocus, or meadow saffron. The forlorn state of 
this plant attracted the notice of the late Dr. Paley; 
who, though he has added nothing new in respect 
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