1/8 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



nut of India and the walnut. Thofe of planta' 

 which grow in the (hade, around the trunk of 

 trees, and which derive, by their roots, the hu- 

 midity collected by the foliage of the tree, as the 

 french-bean and the convolvulus, have a fimilar 

 bearing. But thole which grow entirely under the 

 made of trees, and which have fcarcely any roots, 

 as mufhrooms, have leaves, that fo far from point- 

 ing toward Heaven, are turned downward to the 

 earth. The greateft part are formed on the upper 

 fide into a thick parafol, to prevent the Sun from 

 drinking up the moifture of the foil in which they 

 grow ; and they are divided, on the under fide, 

 into thin leafy plates, for receiving the vapours 

 which exhale from the ground, nearly as thofe of 

 the horizontal wheel of a fire-engine receives the 

 fleam of the boiling water which makes it to turn 

 about. They have, befides, feveral other means 

 of watering themfelves by thefe exhalations. There 

 are many numerous fpecies, lined with tubes, 

 others are fluffed with fponges. There are fome 

 whofe pedicle is hollow inwardly, and which, 

 bearing a chapiter a-top, there colledl the emana- 

 tions of their foil, as in an alembic. Thus, there 

 is not a particle of vapour in the Univerfe that 

 goes to wade. 



What has jufl now been faid of the inverted 

 forms of mufhrooms, of their leafy plates, of the 



tubes 



