MEADOW-SAFFRON. 
165 
till, on investigating its internal structure, he found 
suitable provision made by the great Author of nature for 
all the difficulties against which it would have to struggle. 
“ I have pitied this poor plant a thousand times,” says 
he; “ 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 a little 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 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 styles in 
all cases reach the seed-vessel; but it is in this by an 
elongation unknown to any other plant. All these sin¬ 
gularities contribute to one end. As this plant blossoms 
late in the year, and probably would not have time to 
ripen in seeds before the access of winter, which would 
destroy them, Providence has contrived its structure 
, r o 
M o 
