229 
all mountain plants are volatile. By inspecting their leaves it is possible to 
ascertain the character of their seeds, and by inspecting the seeds to dis¬ 
cover that of their leaves, and thence to infer the elementary character of 
the plant. By mountain plants I here mean all those which grow in sandy 
and parched situations, on eminences, on rocks, on steep ridges by the road 
side, in one word, at a distance from water. 
Hence it is that the seeds of the JMaple (Acer) have two membraneous 
pinions, similar to the wings of a fly. Those of the Elm (Ulmus) are in¬ 
closed in the middle of an oval thin leaf. Those of the Cedar (Prnus Ce~ 
drus) are terminated by broad thin plates, which in their aggregate state 
compose a cone, and when arrived at maturity, the thin membranes to which 
they adhere, which line the woody scales, separate from each other, and, 
with the seeds in the centre, thus winged, fly away to some distant part. 
It is highly worthy of remark, that volatile seeds are produced in much 
greater number than those of any other kind; and in this respect we have 
reason to admire the wisdom of that Providence which foresaw every thing, 
and arranged the whole accordingly. The elevated spots for which they 
are destined, were exposed to be speedily stripped of their vegetables by the 
declivity of their situation, and by the rains, which have a continual ten¬ 
dency to render them lower; but by means of the volatility of certain seeds, 
they are become, of all the places on the earth, the most abundant in 
Finally, we must observe, and not without profound admiration, that the 
season of the maturity of most volatile seeds takes place towards the com¬ 
mencement of autumn, and that, in consequence of the universal intelligence 
which constrains all the parts of Nature to act in concert, the most violent 
gales of wind, * called the equinoxial winds, blow then, towards the end of 
September, or beginning of October. 
Thomson, who has been called with great propriety, “ Natures Poet ,” 
has so beautifully, and at the same time so philosophically alluded to the 
dispersion of seeds, that I cannot close this paragraph without inserting his 
beautiful lines on that subject. 
-A fresher gale 
Begins to wave the wood, and stir the stream, 
Sweeping with shadowy gusts the fields of com; 
* Vide our English Calendar. Sect. XIII. p. OQ , 
3 M 
