266 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



Were we to ftudy the relations which plants 

 have to animals, we fliould perceive in them the 

 ufe of many of the parts, which are frequently 

 confidered as productions of the caprice, and of 

 the confufion, of Nature. So widely extended are 

 'thofe relations, that it may be confidently affirm- 

 ed, that there is not a down upon a plant, not an 

 intertexture of a fhrub, not a cavity, not a colour 

 of leaf, not a prickle, but what has it's utility. 

 Thofe wonderful harmonies are efpecially to be 

 remarked, with relation to the lodgings and the 

 nefts of animals. If, in hot countries, there are 

 plants loaded with down, it is becaufe there are 

 moths, entirely naked, which clip off their fleece, 

 and weave it into clothing. There is found, on 

 the banks of the Amazon, a fpecies of reed, from 

 twenty- five to thirty feet high, the fummit of 

 which is terminated by a large ball of earth. This 

 ball is the workmanlhip of the ants, which retire 

 thither at the time of the rains, and of the periodi- 

 cal inundations of that river : they go up, andde- 

 fcend along the cavity of this reed, and live on the 

 refufe which is then fwimming around them on 

 the furface of the water. 



It is, I prefume, for the purpofe of furnifhing 

 fimilar retreats to many fmall infects, that Nature 

 has hollowed the ftems of molt of our plants of the 



fliore. 



