STUDY XI. 2&| 



Oiore. The valifneria *, which grows in the ftream 

 of the Rhone, and carries it's flower on a fpiral 

 item, capable of being drawn out in proportion to 

 the rapidity of the fudden fwellings of that river, 

 has holes pierced through at the bafis of it's leaves, 

 the ufe of which is much more extraordinary. If 

 you take up this plant by the root, and put it into a 

 large VefTel full of water, you perceive, at the bafis 

 of it's leaves, mafTes of a Wuifh jelly, which in- 

 fenfibly lengthen into pyramids of a beautiful red. 

 Thefe pyramids prefently furrow themfelves into 

 flutings, which difengage from the fummit, invert 

 themfelves all around, and prefent, by their ex- 

 panfion, very beautiful flowers formed of rays 

 purple, yellow, and blue. By little and little, each 

 of thefe flowers advances out of the cavity in which 

 it is partly contained, and withdraws to fome dif- 

 tance from the plant, remaining, however, attach- 

 ed to it, by a fmall filament. You then perceive 

 each of the rays of which thofe flowers are com- 



* Confult, with regard to the Valifneria, the Voyage of an 

 anonymous Englifh traveller, performed in the year 1750, to 

 France, Italy, and the Iflands of the Archipelago, in four fmall 

 volumes, vol. i. It is ftored with judicious obfervations of every 

 kind. Confult likewife, refpe&ing the genipa, and the different 

 fruits, plants, and animals of fouthern countries, the fprightly 

 Father du Tertre, the patriotic Father Charlevoix, John de Laet, 

 the Hiftorian, and all travellers who have written on the fubjecT: 

 of Nature, without the fpirit of fyftem, affifted by the light of 

 feafon alone, 



