STUDY XI. iSj 



marfhy grounds ; as the attractive qualities of many 

 mountain-vegetables, might be ufed in forming 

 fountains upon heights, by collecting there the 

 vapours which float in the air. There is not, per- 

 haps, an infectious morafs on the Globe, except in 

 places where men have injudicioufly deflroyed the 

 plants whofe roots abforbed the humidity of the 

 Earth, and whofe foliage repelled that of the 

 Heavens. 



I pretend not to affirm, however, that the fo- 

 liage of aquatic plants has no farther ufes : for 

 where is the man who has entered into the endlefs 

 views of Nature ? " To whom hath the root of 

 * e wifdom been revealed ? or who hath known 

 "her wife cou nfels ?" Radix Japietiiia cut revelata 

 eft f et aftutias illitis qui s agnovit ? * In general, the 

 leaves of aquatic plants appear, from their extreme 

 mobility, very much adapted to the purpofe of 

 renewing the air of humid places, and of pro- 

 ducing, by their movements, that drying of the 

 ground to which I have juft alluded. Such are 

 thofe of reeds, of poplars, of alpins, of birches, 

 and even of willows, which are fometimes in mo- 

 tion, though there is not the flighted degree of 

 wind perceptible. 



* Ecclefiafticus, chap. i. ver. 6. 



It 



