PROGNOSTICS CONTINUED. 175 



close shut up, it betokens rain and foul wea- 

 ther : if they are spread abroad, fair weather. 

 Ger. Herb, Lib. 2. 



Est et alia (arbor in Tyli.s) similis, foliosior ta- 

 men, roseique ftoris ; quern noctu comprimens ape- 

 lire incipit so/is exho/tu, meridie expandit. In- 

 cokc dormire earn dicunt. Plin. Nat. Hist. 

 Lib. 12. C.2. 



The stalk of trefoil, my Lord Bacon ob- 

 serves, swells against rain, and grows more up- 

 right: and the like may be observed, though 

 not so sfnsibl}', in the stalks of most other 

 plants. He adds, that in the stubble-fields 

 there is found a small red flower, called by tlie 

 country people rmncopipe ; which, opening in 

 the morning, is a sure indication of a fine day. 



'i'hat vegetables should be affected by the 

 same causes tirat affect the weather, is very 

 conceivable; if we consider them as so many- 

 hygrometers and thermometers, consisting of 

 an infinite number of tracheae or air vessels ; 

 by which they have an immediate communica- 

 tion uith the air, and partake of its moisture 

 and heat, 6cc. These tracheae are very visible 

 in the leaf of the scabiose, vine, See. 



Hence it is, that all wood, even the hardest 

 and most solid, swells in moist weather ; the 

 vapours easily insinuating themselves into the 

 pores thereof, especially of that which is light- 

 est and driest. And hence we derive a very 

 extraordinary use of wood, viz, for breaking 

 Tocks and mill-stones. The method at the 

 (juarries is this : Having cut a rock into a cy- 

 linder, they divide that into several lesser cylin- 

 ders, by making holes at tlie proper distances 

 round the great one: these holes tlicy fill with 

 60 many pieces of sallow wood, dried in an oven; 



