spot, he quickly dug a small hole, deposited his charge, the germ of a future oak, covered it up, and then darted up the tree again. In a moment he was down with another, which he buried in the same manner; and thus he continued to labor as long as the observer thought proper to watch him.
The instinct of the little animal may be directed to a provision for his future wants; but the Giver of all good has endowed him with such an active and untiring industry, that he does more than supply all these; and the surplus rises to adorn the earth, and proclaim the wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge.
The capsules of some plants burst with a spring, and the seeds are scattered broadcast by the impulse. The garden balsam, and all the violet race, are examples of this mode.
It is well known how the burdock and the burr marygold (Bidens frondosa) hook themselves by a mechanical contrivance to the clothes of persons and the coats of animals, illustrating in the most familiar manner the economy of nature in the dispersion of seeds.
But, after all, man is the great agent in promoting vegetable migration. It is by his agency that the most precious seeds are borne across the wide ocean. He carries them in all his wanderings among his richest treasures; while others follow his course, whether he will or not, mingling with his rarer seeds, or adhering unseen to his household stuff. The animal fleabane (Erigeron Canadense) was sent from Canada to France, in bales of fur, and from thence, by natural propagation, into all the countries of Europe. The tree primrose (Œnothera biennis), so common in our own vicinity, was first naturalized in the neighborhood of Liverpool, and from thence distributed by its own spontaneous effort all over the civilized world.
It is by the agency of man that the lofty forests are levelled to the ground, and the bosom of the earth laid bare for the reception of a new race of plants. Our own vicinity is a remarkable exemplification of the fact. All around us we see trees, shrubs, and herbacious plants, that once were strangers to the soil. A change is still sweeping over the face of nature. The noble race of forest-trees, and the beau-
