PLANTS. 
5 
comes the plant; of which, from the first, it con- 
tained the rudiments : the fibres shoot into the 
earth ; and thereby both fix the plant to the ground 
and collect nourishment from the soil for its sup- 
port. Now, what is not a little remarkable, the 
parts issuing from the seed take their respective 
directions, into whatever position the seed itself hap- 
pens to be cast. If the seed be thrown into the 
wrongest possible position, that is, if the ends point 
in the ground, the reverse of what they ought to 
do, every thing, nevertheless, goes on right. The 
sprout, after being pushed down a little way, makes 
a bend and turns upwards ; the fibres, on the con- 
trary, after shooting at first upwards, turn down.” 
The inference which we must draw from all this 
is evident. It is one of Nature’s laws for the pre- 
servation of her products, which can never be over- 
turned. “ For,” says Paley, the toil of the hus- 
bandman would have been in vain ; his laborious 
and expensive preparation of the ground in vain ; 
if the event must, after all, depend upon the po- 
sition in which the scattered seed was sown. Not 
one seed out of a hundred would fall in a right 
direction.” This is certainly a very curious phae- 
nomenon ; for although almost all plants rise a little 
crooked, and will go out of their way to avoid any 
obstruction which they may meet with in their 
passage to the surface of the earth, and will even 
make a second bend, or elbow, without rectifying 
the first ; yet will they afterwards shoot up per- 
pendicularly, never leaving the ground in an ir- 
