230 
While the quail clamours for his running mate. 
Wide o’er the thistly lawn, as swells the breeze, 
A whit’ning shower of vegetable down 
Amusive floats. The kind impartial care 
Of Nature, nought disdains: thoughtful to feed 
Her lowest sons, and clothe the coming year. 
From field to field the feather d seeds she wings. 
Thomson’s Summer, 1. 1635. 
The generality of seeds are so small as to rise like dust before the wind; 
and for this purpose the stalks and stems rise in the air, and their leaves, 
catching the gale ; tend the more to their dispersion. 
III. Aquatic Expeditions. There is to be found in Nature, a link which 
connects the volatile and aquatic seeds. Thus the Willow-lierh (Epilo- 
bium), which grows on the banks of ponds, and in humid situations, has 
Its seeds clothed with down, so as to be wafted by the winds, or sail upon 
the water. Thus the Willow (Salix) has its seeds surrounded by a cobweb 
of down, rendering it capable of being transported to a great distance by the 
wind, but which, like the feathers of a duck, float on the surface of the 
water, until they reach a convenient shore. The same is the case with the 
Poplar (Populus). The Fir (Pinus) and Birch (Be tula) also possess 
the volatile and nautical character. As these trees grow on the sides of 
bleak and wintry mountains, and on the borders of vast lakes, their seeds 
have not only to sail over stagnant waters, but to be transported through 
the air over the snow, in which they delight to grow. As the examination 
of so many curious circumstances would carry us too far, I shall only men¬ 
tion the Linden tree (Tilia), the seeds of which are enclosed in a spherical 
body, similar to a small bullet: this bullet is affixed to a long tail, from 
whose extremity descends a follicle of considerable length, in an oblique 
direction, by which the wind carries it to a great distance, spinning it round 
and round. When it drops into the water it plunges about the depth of 
an inch, and serves, in some sort, as ballast to its tail, and to the small leaf 
attached to it, which being thus brought to a vertical position, perform the 
functions of a mast and sail. 
The seeds of aquatic plants have forms no less adapted than those of 
their leaves to the places where they are destined to grow; they are all con¬ 
structed in a manner most proper for sailing. These are formed, many of 
them, like regular constructed boats, rafts, or skiffs, as well as single and 
double canoes, similar to those of the South Seas. I have no doubt, says 
Saint Pierre, that by attentive study of this part alone, a great number 
