î?6 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



Thefe have difpofitions entirely different in their 

 leaves, the bearing of their branches, and, above 

 all, in the configuration of their feeds. Nature, 

 as has already been obferved, in order to vary her 

 harmonies, only employs» in very many cafes, po- 

 litive and negative characters. She has beftowed 

 an aqueduct on the pedicle of the leaves of moun- 

 tain-plants ; (he withdraws it from thofe which 

 grow by the fide of the waters, and transforms 

 them into aquatic plants. Thefe, inftead of 

 having their leaves hollowed out into gutters, are 

 clothed with leaves fmooth and fleek, fuch as the 

 corn-flag, which bears them in form of a poignard's 

 blade, or fwelling in the middle like a fword- 

 blade, as thofe of the fpecies of reed called typha, 

 that common fort, the ftem of which the Jews put 

 into the hand of Jesus Christ. Thofe of the 

 nymphœa are plane, and rounded in form of a 

 heart. Some of thefe fpecies affect other forms, 

 but their long tails are uniformly deflitute of a 

 canal. Thofe of the bulrufh are round like a 

 pipe. There is an endlefs variety of rufhes on 

 the brink of moraffes, rivulets, and fountains. 

 You will find them of all fizes, from thofe which 

 have the finenefs of a hair, up to the fpecies which 

 grows in the river of Genoa, as large as a cane. 

 Whatever difference there may be in the jointing 

 of their ftalks and of their pannicles,they all have, 



in 



