yt CE C O N O M Y 



prepared offers again to plants from its bb- 

 fom, what it has received from them. For 

 when feeds are committed to the earth, they 

 draw to themfelves, accommodate to their 

 nature, and turn into plants^ the more fub- 

 tile parts of this mould by the co-operation 

 of the fun, air, clouds, rains, and winds -, fo 

 that the talleft tree is, properly fpeaking, no- 

 thing but mould wonderfully compounded 

 with air, and water, and modified by a ver- 

 tue communicated to a fmall feed by the 

 Creator. From thefe plants^ when they die, 

 juft the fame kind of mould is formed, as 

 gave birth to them originally •, but in fuch a 

 manner, that it is in greater quantity than 

 before. Vegetables therefore increafe the black 

 mould, whence fertility remains continual- 

 ly uninterrupted. Whereas the earth could 

 not make good its annual confumption, un* 

 lefs it were conftantly recruited by new fup- 

 plies. 



The cruftaceous liverworts are the firfl foun- 

 dation of vegetation^ and therefore are plants 

 of the utmoft confequence in the oeconomy 

 of nature, tliough fo defpifed by us. When 

 rocks firll emerge out of the fea, they are fo 

 polilhed by the force of the v/aves,. that 



fcarcc 



