STUDY XI. 177 



i/i their plan, a round or elliptical form. You 

 will find thofe fpecies alone which grow in parch- 

 ed fituations, to be fluted and hollowed on their 

 furface. When Nature intends to render aquatic 

 plants fufceptible of vegetation on the mountains, 

 fhe beftows aqueducts on their leaves ; but when, 

 on the contrary, (he means to place mountain- 

 plants by the water's-fide, (he withdraws it. The 

 aloes of the rock has it's leaves hollowed into a 

 fcoop; the aloes of the water has them full. I 

 am acquainted with a dozen fpecies of mountain- 

 fern, every one of which has a fmall fluting along 

 it's branches, and the only fpecies of the marflies, 

 which I know, wants it. The bearing of it's 

 branches is likewife very different from that of the 

 others. The firft rears them toward Heaven, the 

 lad bears them almoft horizontally* 



If the leaves of mountain-plants are conftructed 

 in the beft manner poflible for collecting, at their 

 roots, the waters of Heaven, which they have not 

 always at command ; t.hofe of aquatic plants are 

 frequently difpofed in fuch a manner, as to re- 

 move them, becaufe they are deftined to grow in 

 the bofom of water, or in it's vicinity. The leaves 

 of trees which love the water's fide, as the birch, 

 the afpin, and the poplar, are attached to long and 

 pendent tails. There are others which bear then- 

 leaves difpofed in form of tiles, as the great cheft- 



v-ol. ni. n nut; 



