109 
the first supply of the progeny, which will never 
know the provident parent’. 
The rarity of some testacea may warrant a con- 
jecture that the fertility of some is much less than 
that of others. The paucity of specimens of gordius 
aquaticus, and of gordius argillaceus, (query, whe- 
ther decidedly distinct ?) suggests also a similar 
supposition. 
The fruit or seed-vessel of many plants bears only 
one seed, as the plum, the nut, &c.: others are bilo- 
cular, and produce two seeds, as staphylea or blad- 
der-nut, anthyllis vulneraria, kidney vetch, trifolium 
suffocatum, &c. melilotus, &c. Some produce three 
seeds and some four, as several species of trefoil, 
enonymus the spindle tree. Spirezeacez produce 
seeds from one to six. Poppies innumerable. Alis- 
macez, pods one or two seeded. ‘Triglochin, fruit 
dry, one or two seeded. 
The various modes by which fructification is pro- 
tected in the blossom and in the seed-vessel are very 
numerous, beautiful, and wonderful. In some the 
corolla folds its tender petals over the antherz and 
pistilla, to guard them from rain and from invading 
insects. In some the pendulous corolla throws off 
the falling shower from its conical or bell-formed 
surface. The seeds of most plants are protected 
within hard or elastic shells, drupz or silique. But 
many are fixed upon a bare receptacle. These, how- 
€ On this part of the subject it suffices to make a general 
reference to the Introduction to the Study of Entomology, by 
Kirby and Spence. 
