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Number of Plants

but certain it is, that thousands of oaks are annually planted by this means. Swine, also, in searching for food, turn up the earth; and inoles, by throwing up hillocks, prepare the ground for seeds of various kinds. Seas, lakes, and rivers, by their streams and currents, often convey seeds unhurt to distant countries.

In assimilating the animal and vegetable kingdoms, Linnæus denominates seeds the eggs of plants. The fecundity of plants is frequently marvellous: from a single plant or stalk of Indian Turkey wheat, are produced, in one summer, 2000 seeds; of elecampane, 3000; of sun-flower, 4000; of poppy, 32,000; of a spike of cat's-tail, 10,000 and upwards: a single fruit or seed-vessel of tobacco, contains 1000 seeds; that of white poppy, 8000. Mr. Ray relates, from experiments made by himself, that 1012 tobacco seeds are equal in weight to one grain; and that the weight of the whole quantum of seeds in a single tobacco plant, is such as must, according to the above proportion, determine their number to be 360,000. The same author estimates the a...aual produce of a single stalk of spleen-wort to be upwards of 1,000,000 of seeds.

PRODIGIOUS NUMBER OF PLANTS UPON THE EARTH.-It is said, that there are about 44,000 different plants already discovered, to which new ones are daily added. By means of the microscope, some have been found where they were least expected. The different varieties of mosses and sponges have been classed among vegetables, and have presented to the observation of the naturalist, seeds and flowers before unknown. Freestone is sometimes covered with brown and blackish spots; the mouldy substance which composes them. adheres to various other matters, and may be considered as a little garden in vegetation. When we reflect upon the quantity of moss which covers the hardest stones, the trunks of trees, and the most barren places;-when we consider the quantity of vegetables upon the surface of the earth; the different species of flowers which delight and refresh us; the trees and bushes, add to these the aquatic plants, some of which exceed a hair in fineness; -we may be able to form some idea of the multitude of plants in the vegetable kingdom. All these species grow up, and are preserved without detriment or injury, each having that place assigned it, which is most suited to its properties. Such is the wisdom displayed in their distribution over the surface of the earth, that there is no part of it wholly destitute, and no part enjoys them in too great abundance. Some plants require the open field, where, unsheltered by trees, they may receive the sun's rays; others can only exist in water; some grow in the sand; others in marshes and fens, which are frequently covered with water, and some bud on the surface of the earth, whilst others unfold themselves in its bosom. The different strata which compose the soil of the earth, as sand, clay, chalk, &c. favour different vegetables; and hence it is, that in the vast garden of nature nothing is absolutely sterile; from the finest sand to the flinty rock, from the torrid to the frozen zone, each soil and climate supports plants peculiar to itself. Another circumstance highly worthy of attention is: the Creator has so ordered, that, among this immense variety of plants, those which are most proper for food or medicine multiply in greater abundance than those which are of less utility. Herbs are much more numerous than trees and brambles; grass is in greater abundance than oaks; and cherry-trees more plentiful than apricots: had oaks been more frequent than grass, or trees than herbs and roots, it would have been impossible for animals to subsist. According to the calculation of Baron Von Humboldt, 6000 plants are agamous, that is, plants which have no sexual organs, such as champignons, lichens, &c. Of the remainder there are found- In Europe 7,000 In the temperate regions of Asia ...... 1,500 In Equinoxial Asia, and the adjacent Islands 4,500 In Africa • 3,000 In the temperate regions of America, in both hemispheres ... 4,000 In Equinoxial America .. 13,000 In New Holland, and the Islands of the Pacific Ocean 5,000 Total 38,000 SENSIBILITY OF PLANTS. - There are certain motions onservable in plants, that make it doubtful whether they are not possessed of sensibility. Some plants shrink and contract their leaves upon being touched; others open and shut their flowers at certain fixed hours in the day, so regularly as te denote with precision the time of day; some assume a peculiar form during the night, folding up their leaves; and these different changes take place whether ney are in the open air, or shut up in close apartments. Those which live under water during the time of fecundation, raise their flowers above the surface.

The motions of a marshy plant discovered some time since, in the province of Carolina, are still more singular. Its round leaves are furnished above, and on the sides, with a multitude of notches that are extremely irritable. When an insect happens to creep upon the superior surface of the leaves, they