vent the escape of the bearded or hygrometer oat, which twists itself out of the glume, and makes off, to the great ease of the Dalcarean peasant, its great cultivator, who is spared the trouble of threshing it; but he must take care to shut the barn door, or his oats may stray to that of his neighbour.

We see the very minute seeds of 14 genera of mfsoes, fungi, byfsus, and mucor, which float in the air like atoms, carried by the winds to all kind of situations, even the tops of walls, houses &c. to take pofsefsion however only of such spots as are unoccupied, and which probably would even have remained barren, had not these lowly grovellers, which Linnæus calls the labourers of the vegetable kingdom, prepared the ground for plants of a superior rank, protecting and watering them at the same time, during their tender infancy; nay even the vegetable nobles, the proud trees of the forest, owe similar obligations in their tender years, to these same protecting and fostering plants, which inattentive man often treats with contempt, and regards as a nuisance, with the no lefs useful insects and reptiles.

Nature employs still other means for the necessary dispersion of seeds; as rivers transport them from one province to another, whilst the sea wafts them from their native, to foreign fhores. Of the existance of both these modes of conveyance, the ins defatigable Linnæus, was convinced by his own ac◄ curate observations. He found for example many Alpine plants in Lapland, carried and planted by rivers. thirty-six miles distant from their natural place of

growth, and some foreign plants, as the German century, and the veronica maritima, brought and planted by the sea on the fhores of Sweden. Linnæus brings likewise some facts in proof of his general doctrine of the dispersion of seeds by the winds; vix that the Canadian erigiron or flea bane, was dispersed from the botanic garden of Paris over all Europe, the antirrhinum minus, or lefser toad flax of Bauhin, from that of Upsal over the whole province, as were the datura or thorn apple, the cotula or may weed, and the American gnaphalium or cudweed.

But nature has made as curious, wise, and effectu al arrangements, for the preservation, as for the dispersion of seeds. A few of these we fhall likewise just hint at as a subject of admiration and won

der.

Eighty-six genera of plants, whose situation, on the bare sea-fhore, exposes their seeds to become the prey of fishes and birds, the almighty has hid from them in seed vefsels so exactly resembling shells, that they escape notice and destruction, being confounded with the millions of real fhells scattered upon the shore. As an example of this curious fact, the seed vefsels of the medicago or medick, the salicornia or marsh sampire, and the salsola or glofs wort, resemble the cockle so exactly, that they pafs unnoticed with that fhell.

Other means of preservation comes from the facul ty given to some plants of hiding their seeds in the ground, such as the subterraneous trefoil and lathyrus, with the arachis or ground nut &c. whilst the seeds of others are preserved a most astonishing

time in the earth, without losing their vegetating powers; examples of this fact we see in the thistle, and the lobellia or cardinal flower, which have been known to remain in the ground twenty years without injury, and the hypecoon forty, whilst the seeds of the melon, of cafsia, and of sensative plant, retain their vegerating powers for forty or fifty years.

In fhort it would be endless to point out the wonderful ways that providence takes to preserve from extinction every species of plant, as even the very animals are made subservient to this great end; as those who feed on fruits and seeds, hide them in the ground, where they often take root by the negligence, forgetfulness, or death of the owners. Thus the squirrel, the mouse, the jay, &c. plant nuts; and many insects plant corn, and other seeds.

I fhall now finish my second letter with a fhort note on the sleep of plants.

The vigil and repose of plants, one of the most curious subjects in natural history, merits some slight notice here, qualities possessed in a most eminent degree, by what have been called the solar plants; more particularly by that subdivision of them named Equinoxial, which observe more regular hours, and are lefs affected by the state of the atmosphere, than either the tropical, or meteorical, the other two subdivisions.

The great Linnæus, found the hours of opening and shutting of the equinoxial plants so exact, that he composed a sort of garden clock from them, suf

Oet. 16: ficiently accurate for common purposes, which any of your readers may pofsefs, by setting the twelve following plants in a row in the order here set down, all of which are either indigenous or naturalized in Great Britain, and seven of them grow wild in Scotland, which I have distinguished by the letter (S.) before the hour indicated in the margin. If the sketches given in these two letters excite your correspondents to treat the subjects hinted at, it will give pleasure to

Imp. corps of Noble Cadets in St. Pete burg. December 1792.

ARCTICUS.

A VEGETABLE GARDEN CLOCK WITH TWO VEGE

Hours

TBLE BAROMETERS.

of As there are but ten of the Eqninoxial opening plants which open at stated hours, the two or first on the following list, are taken from fbutting those which shut at a given hour.

English Names.

Linnæan Names.

S.

Lactuca saliva.

II し weed.

Crepis alpina.

(Alpine bastard hawk

12 Blue flowered alpine. Sonchus alpinus. To this crious vegetable time piece, a couple of vegetable barometers may be added, which act upon similar principles, and are likewise sufficiently accurate for the gardener and farmer. The first barometer is the African mary-gold, or CALENDULA pluvialis.

If the African mary-gold opens not its flowers in the morning about seven o'clock, you are sure to have rain that day, except it is to be accompanied with thunder.

The second barometer is the Siberian sow thistle, or SONCHUS Sibericus.

If the flowers of the Siberian thistle keep open all night, you are sure of rain next day.

TWO CURIOUS FACTS RESPECTING NATURAL HISTORY.

SIR.

Yo

To the Editor of the Bee.

OUR correspondent M. has mentioned a pretty curious phenomenon, in vol. 13 p. 286 of the Bee, which you have explained in the most satisfactory manner. I will beg leave to add a similar fact, to which, though I had it from the most undoubted authority, some years ago, I could not give the full afsent of my mind, till I read the above paper. It will serve, at least, to corroborate your opinion.

A knife found in the heart of a growing tree. Two men in Rofs hire being employed, sawing some large fir trees, observed a long black streak in one of the planks, pretty near the center, where,