STUDY XI. - 211 



uncultivated, for ever fo fhort a fpacô of time, and 

 you will prefently fee it clothed with vegetables. 

 They grow there in fuch numbers, and fo vigo- 

 rouily, that there is no hufbandman capable of 

 producing an equal quantity, on the fame fpot, 

 let him take what pains he will. Thefe (hoots, 

 however, fo vigorous and fo rapid, which fre- 

 quently take poffeffion of our dock-yards of free- 

 flone, of our walls of afhlar, and of our courts 

 paved with granite, are, in many cafes, only a pro- 

 vifional culture. Nature, who is always advancing 

 from harmony to harmony, till fhe has attained 

 that point of perfection which (lie propofed to 

 herfelf, fows, at firft, with graffes, and herbage of 

 different fpecies, all abandoned foils, waiting for 

 an opportunity of exerting her powers, to raife on 

 that very fpot vegetables of a higher order. On 

 the rude neglected diftricts, where barren downs 

 alone meet our eyes, posterity may behold (lately 

 forefts arife. 



We (hall throw, as our cuftom is, a fuperncial 

 glance on the very ingenious methods which Na- 

 ture employs for preparing and conducting thofe 

 vegetable progreflions. We (hall hence attain a 

 glimpfe, at lead, not only of the elementary rela- 

 tions of plants, but of thofe which exift between 

 their different claffes, and which extend even to 



p 2 the 



