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Of Vegetation. 



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3*7 



a pofition, or a too luxurious (late are un-> 

 fruitful, viz. becaufc, being in thefc cafes 

 more replete with moifturc, they cannot im- 

 bibe fo ftrongly from the air, as others do, 

 that great blefling the dew of Heaven. 



And as the mod racy generous taftes of 

 fruits, and the grateful odours of flowers, 

 do not improbably arifc from thefc refined 

 aercal principles, fo may the beautiful co. 

 lours of flowers be owing in a good mea- 

 furc to the fame original ; for it is a known 

 obfervation, that a dry foil contributes much 

 more to their variegation than a ftrong moift 

 one does. 



And may not light alfo, by freely cntring 

 the expanded furfaccs of leaves and flowers, 

 contribute much to the ennobling the prin- 

 ciples of vegetables j for Sir Ifaac Newton, 

 puts it as a very probable query, " Are 

 " not grofs bodies and light convertible into 

 " one another ? and may not bodies receive 

 much of their a&ivity from the particles 

 of light, which enter their composition > 

 The change of bodies into light, and of, 

 " light into bodies, is very conformable Iff 

 the courfe of nature, which feems de- 

 lighted with transmutations. Opt. qu. id." 



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