150 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



defcends to the root, by a feries of fucceflive dif- 

 pofitions. If you pour water gently over the leaves 

 of a mountain-fhrub, which are the fartheft from 

 it's ftem, and you will perceive it purfue the pro- 

 grefs which I have juft indicated, and not a fingle 

 drop will be loft on the ground. 



I have had the curiofity to meafure, in fdme 

 mountain-plants, the inclination which their 

 branches form with their ftem ; and I have found, 

 in at leaft a dozen of different fpecies, as in the 

 fern, the thuia, and the like, an angle of about 

 thirty degrees. It is very remarkable, that this 

 degree of incidence is the fame with that which is 

 formed, in a flat country, by the courfe of many 

 rivulets and fmaller rivers, with the great rivers 

 into which they difcharge themfelves, as may be 

 afcertained by reference to maps. This degree of 

 incidence appears to be the moft favourable to the 

 efflux of many fluids, which direct themfelves to- 

 ward one fingle line. The fame Wifdom has re- 

 gulated the level of the branches in trees, and the 

 courfe of the ftream through the plains. 



This inclination undergoes fome varieties in 

 certain mountain-trees. The cedar of Lebanon, 

 for example, fends forth the lower parts of it's 

 branches, in an upward direction, toward Heaven, 

 and lowers their extremities, by pending them 



downward 



