63 OE C O N O M Y 



void, none barren. But fince all countrfe 

 have not the lame changes of feafons, and 

 every foil is not equally fit for every plant, He 

 therefore, that no place fhould be without 



TiOvv all vegetables and animals might in this illand have a 

 {"oil and climate proper for each, only by fuppofing it to be 

 placed under the aequator, and crowned with a very high 

 mountain. For it is well known that the fame //««// are 

 found on the Swifs, the Pyrenean, the Scotch alps, on 

 Olympus, Lebanon, Ida, as on the Lapland and Green- 

 knd alps. And Tournefort found at the bottom of moutvt 

 Ararat the common plants of Armenia, a little way up 

 thofe of Iraly, higher thofe which grow about Paris, af- 

 terwards the Swedifti plants, and laftly on the top the 

 Lapland alpine plants ; and i myfelf, adds the author, from 

 the plants growing on the Dakcarlian alps could colled 

 how much lower they were than th€ alps of Laplaml. He 

 then proceeds to fhew how from orie plant of each fpecies 

 the immenfe number of individuals rtow exilling might 

 arjTe. He gives fome inllances of thefbrprifrng fertility of 

 certain plants, v. g. the elecampane, one plant of which 

 produced 3000 feeds, of fpelt, 2000, of the funflowcr 

 40C0, of the,!lf oppy 3 200, of tobacco 40320. But fup- 

 pofing any annual plant producing yearly only two feeds, 

 evenpf this after 20 years there would he 1,048,^76 indi- 

 viduals. For they would increafe yearly in a duple pro- 

 portion, viz. 2, 4, &, 16, 32, &c. He then gives fome in- 

 llances of plants brought from America, tliat are now 

 become common over many parts of Europe. Laftiy he 

 cnter-s upon the fubjcdV for which he is quoted in the 

 text, where the detail he gives of the feveral methods 

 which nature has taken to propagate vegetables is ex- 

 tremely curious, but too long to infert in this place. 



fome> 



