206 
OF PLANTS. 
plant is produced next winter;* of no other plant do the 
roots refuse to shoot in the ground; of no other plant do 
the seeds possess this adhesive, generative quality, when 
applied to the bark of trees. 
IV. Another instance of the compensatory system is in 
the autumnal crocus, or meadow saffron, (colchicum autum - 
nale.) [PI. XXXVII.] I have pitied this poor plant a 
thousand times. Its blossom rises out of the ground in the 
most forlorn condition possible; without a sheath, a fence, 
a calyx, or even a leaf to protect it; and that, not in the 
spring, not to be visited by summer suns, but under all the 
disadvantages of the declining year. When we come, how¬ 
ever, to look more closely into the structure of this plant, 
we find that, instead of its being neglected, nature has 
gone out of her course to provide for its security, and to 
make up to it for all its defects. The seed-vessel, which in 
other plants is situated within the cup of the flower, or just 
beneath it, in this plant lies buried ten or twelve inches 
under ground within the bulbous root. The tube of the 
flower, which is seldom more than a few tenths of an inch 
long, in this plant extends down to the root. The stiles 
in all cases reach the seed-vessel; but it is in this, by an 
elongation unknown to any other plant. All these singu¬ 
larities contribute to one end. “ As this plant blossoms late 
in the year, and probably would not have time to ripen its 
seeds before the access of winter, which would destroy 
them, Providence has contrived its structure such, that this 
important office may be performed at a depth in the earth 
out of reach of the usual effects of frost.’’I That is to say, 
in the autumn nothing is done above ground but the busi¬ 
ness of impregnation; which is an affair between the an¬ 
ther® and the stigmata, and is probably soon over. The 
maturation of the impregnated seed, which in other plants 
proceeds within a capsule, exposed together with the rest 
of the flower to the open air, is here carried on, and during 
the whole winter, within the heart, as we may say, of the 
earth, that is “out of the reach of the usual effects of 
frost.” But then a new difficulty presents itself. Seeds, 
though perfected, are known not to vegetate at this depth 
in the earth. Our seeds, therefore, though so safely lodged, 
would, after all, be lost to the purpose for which all seeds 
are intended. Lest this should be the case, “a second 
admirable provision is made to raise them above the surface 
when they are perfected, and to sow them at a proper dis- 
* Withering, Bot. Arr. vol. i. p. 203, ed. 2d. 
t Withering’s Botanic?] Arrangement, p. 360. 
