798 MONADELPHIA. PENTANDRIA. Erodium 
G. Pimpinellifolium. Ray. With. Ed. ii. Sandy heaths and corn-fields, 
Suffolk, frequent. Mr. Woodward. 
Both this and the preceding have five glands of a dark colour on the outside 
the base of the anther-bearing filaments. 
Var. 3. Hoary. Flowers larger. Blossom white. Stems thicker. Leaves 
not so finely cut. Ray. Leaves covered with white hairs. Woodw. 
Near Camberwell. Ray. Sea banks near Wemys, Fifeshire. Lightfoot. 
On Yarmouth Denes plentifully, and elsewhere within the distance of a 
few miles from the sea. Mr. Woodward. (Abundant about Tynemouth. 
Mr. Winch. E.) St. Vincent’s Rocks, Bristol. 
(He mlock-leaved Stork’s-bill. E. cicutarium. Sm. Willd. De Cand. 
Hook. Grev. Geranium cicutarium. Linn. Huds. Lightf. With. Curt. 
Oed. E.) In waste ground, sandy soil, on walls and rubbish. 
A. April—Oct.* 
E. moscha'tum. Flowers in umbels: leafits mostly on short leaf¬ 
stalks, unequally cut, (elliptical: stems prostrate. E.) 
* (Several species have been highly extolled for stopping profluvia, and hemorrhages. It 
is undoubtedly a valuable remedy among poor people in the country, and worthy of 
being introduced in the shops. Encyc. Brit. E.) Among the numberless instances of 
obvious Providential design and contrivance in the structure of the seeds and seed-vessels of 
plants, few are, perhaps, more remarkable, or more strikingly display themselves as the 
workmanship of an intelligent artificer, than that which we meet with in the seeds of 
Erodium cicutarium, moschatum, and some species of Geranium. The seeds of this genus 
surround the pistil at its base; each seed it covered with a distinct seed-coat peculiar to 
itself, which, after having inclosed the seed, runs out in the form of a narrow appendage or 
tail to the extremity of the style, to which it is slightly connected along its whole length, 
and which has five grooves or flutes to receive the five seeds with their appendages. Each 
of these appendages has the property of contracting itself into a spiral or screw-like form, 
when dry ; and of again extending itself into a right line, when moist. In short, it is a 
spiral spring, which lengthens or contracts itself alternately, as often and in such propor¬ 
tion, as it happens to becoiue wet or dry. The power firsts exerts itself when the seed and 
its appendage becomes dry, in consequence of arriving at maturity; when it gradually 
separates the seed from its parent plant. The seed, thus disengaged, is continually 
contracting and dilating itself, as the weather changes from wet to dry, and from dry to 
wet; and by this means is kept in motion, till it is either destroyed by the vicissitudes of 
the seasons, or meets with some crevice in the earth, or some light porous spot, into which 
it can insinuate itself, and from thence, in due time, produce a new’ plant. The minutiae 
of the mechanical structure and operations of this curious seed will be better understood by 
inspection, than by the most laboured description; and all its manoeuvres may be seen in 
a short space of time, by alternately moistening and drying it ; which may be readily 
done, by putting a little water on the edge of a white stone or china plate, and removing 
it by turns from the dry to the moist, and from the moist to the dry part of the plate ; or 
the changes may still more quickly be produced, by removing it from the w ? et to a fresh 
place, and drying it before a fire. I mention a white plate, because on that, the fine hairs 
which display themselves from the sides of the tail, as that contracts, and which act as fulcra, 
or feet, to assist and direct the seed in its motions, are most easily distinguishable. Dr. 
Arnold. (And thus does the admirable adaptation exhibited by the various phenomena 
of the vegetable kingdom appear almost to approximate the principle denominated 
instinct in the animal creation, preserving a consistent gradation, and manifesting a 
superintendant care from the highest to the lowest order of created being. In truth 
-- - “ There lives and works 
A soul in all things, and that soul is God.” E.) 
