STUDY XI. I55 



you would, at the firft glance, believe them fimilar 

 to the rufli of marfhy places ; but with a little at- 

 tention, and not without ailonifhment, you will 

 obferve that they are hollowed into a furrow the 

 whole of their lengthvvife direction. They are, 

 like other rulhes, convex on one fide, but they 

 differ from them effentially, in that they are all 

 concave on the other ; I was enabled to diftin- 

 guifh, by this fame character, the fpartha, which 

 is a rulh of the mountains of Spain, and is now 

 frequently manufactured at Paris into cordage for 

 their draw-wells. 



Many leaves, even of the plants of the plains, 

 affume, on their firft fpringing up, this form of 

 little furrow, or fpoon, as thofe of the violet, and 

 of moil gramineous plants. You may perceive, 

 in the Spring, the young tufts of thefe railing 

 themfelves upright toward Heaven, like paws, to 

 catch the falling drops, efpecially when it begins 

 to rain ; but molt plants of the plains lofe their 

 gutter as they expand. It has been bellowed on 

 them only during the feafon when it was neceflary 

 to their growth. It is permanent only in the plants 

 of the mountains. It is traced, as has been men- 

 tioned, on the pedicle of the leaves, and conducts 

 the rain-water into the tree, from the leaf to the 

 branch : the branch, by the obliquity of it's pofi- 

 fition, conveys it to the trunk, from whence it 



defcends 



