STUDY XI. £35 



Émple oppofition of forms : it is fo univerfal, that 

 Nature has given it to plants which had it not in 

 themfelves, by oppofing them to others which 

 have a configuration entirely different. 



The fpecies oppofite in forms are almoft always 

 in company. When you fall in with an old wil- 

 low, on the bank of a river, which art has not de^- 

 graded, you may frequently fee upon it a great 

 convolvulus covering the radiated foliage of the 

 tree with it's own heart- formed leaves, and it's 

 bell-fliaped white flowers, to make up the defect 

 of apparent flowers, which Nature has denied to 

 this tree. Different fpecies of ropeweed produce 

 the fame harmonies on various fpecies of high gra- 

 mineous plants. 



Thefe plants, called creeping, are fcattered over 

 the whole vegetable kingdom, and are appropriat- 

 ed, as I fuppofe, to each vertical fpecies. They have 

 a great variety of methods of fixing themfelves on 

 the upright plant, which would alone merit a par- 

 ticular treatife. There are fome which turn them- 

 felves fpirally around the trunks of forefl: trees, 

 fuch as the honey-fuckle ; others, as peafe, have 

 hands with three to five fingers, by which they 

 lay hold of fhrubbery : it is very remarkable, that 

 thofe hands do not make their appearance till they 

 have acquired a height at which they begin to 



have 



