STUDY XI. 205 



any rate, is certain, namely, that independent of 

 the mealy fubftance, we find, in the black-corn, 

 in the beech -mad, and in the cheftnut, fimilar 

 properties, fuch as that of cooling exceflive heat of 

 urine *. 



It was, in like manner, the intention of Nature 

 to produce the acorn, in a great variety of expo- 

 fures. Pliny enumerated, in his time, thirteen dif- 

 ferent fpecies in Europe, one of them, which 

 makes very excellent food, is that of the green 

 oak. It is of this that the Poets fpeak, when 

 they celebrate the felicity of the Golden Age, be- 

 caufe it's fruit then ferved as an aliment to Man. 

 It is worthy of being remarked, that there is not 

 a hngle genus of vegetable, but what gives in 

 fome one of it's fpecies, a fubftance capable of be- 

 ing converted into nourifhment for mankind. The 

 acorn of the green oak is, among the fruits of this 

 genus of trees, the portion referved for our ufe. 

 Nature has been pleafed, after making this provi- 

 fion for Man, to fcatter the other fpecies of the 

 oak over the different foils of America, to fupply 

 the neceffities of her other creatures. She has pre- 

 ferved the fruit, and has varied the other parts of 

 the vegetable. She has placed the acorn, but with 

 the leaves of the willow, on the plant which has, 



* See ChomeV% Treatife on Common Plants. 



for 



