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44 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 spring, not to be visited by summer suns, but under all 
the disadvantages of the declining year. When we come, however, 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 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 
styles always reach the seed-vessel; but it is in this, by an elongation unknown to 
any other plant. All these singularities contribute to one end. In the autumn 
nothing is done above ground but the business of impregnation. 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 of the earth. Seeds, though perfected, would be 
unable to vegetate at this depth in the earth. A second admirable provision is 
therefore made to raise them above the surface; the germ grows up in the spring, 
upon a fruit stalk, accompanied with leaves. The seeds now, in common with 
those of other plants, have the benefit of the summer, and are sown upon the sur¬ 
face.” 
From the outline here exhibited of the vital economy and peculiar structure of 
this plant, it is conceived, that, without overstraining the subject, the argument 
may be carried some steps further, and that we may reasonably infer that there is 
design in the mode of its flowering; in the provision made for its reproduction, in 
case of the germen remaining unfertilized; and also, in the relative position of the 
embryonic germ or bulb. 
First .—There is evidence of design in the mode of flowering. The delicate 
flowers expanding their petals, as the harbingers of winter, without the protection 
of leaves or other envelope, exposed to the ungenial influence of a changeful sea¬ 
son, when scarcely any other plant ventures to blossom, run many risks of being 
prevented from attaining their destined end, either from the nipping keenness of 
early frosts, the rude and crushing tread of cattle feeding on the pasturage in which 
they grow, or the playful and innocent wantonness of heedless childhood cropping 
the showy blossoms to deck their baby-toys. Nature here, therefore, steps in and 
provides a remedy. For, unlike most other plants, this does not expand all its 
blossoms at the same time, but reserves, as it were, a portion, to be resorted to only 
in cases of necessity. Should injury overtake it in its prime of beauty, a second 
flower is provided, which, supplied with nutriment from the parent-bulb, is pushed 
forward and takes the place of its unfortunate predecessor. Should this also 
be destroyed, a third floret (Fig. 1, n) is often visible at the base of the other two,. 
