306 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



feem to be connected with their neceffities. Maa 

 alone is fenfible to the perfume and luftre of 

 flowers, independantly of all animal appetite. The 

 dog himfelf, who, from Ins domeftic habits, aflumes 

 fo powerful a tin&ure of the manners and of the 

 tafles of Man, appears totally infenfible to that 

 enjoyment. The imprefllon which flowers make 

 upon us, feems connected with fome moral affec- 

 tion ; for there are fome which enliven us, whereas 

 others difpofe us to melancholy, without our being 

 able to affign any other reafons for it than thofe 

 which I have endeavoured to unfold, in examining 

 fome general Laws of Nature. 



Inflead of diftin gui thing them as yellow, red, 

 blue, violet, we might divide them into gay, into 

 ferious, into melancholy : their character is fo ex- 

 preflive, that lovers, in the Eaft, employ their 

 fhades to defcribe the différent degrees of their 

 paffion. Nature makes frequent ufe of it, rela- 

 tively to us, with the fame intention. When the 

 wants to keep us at a diftance from a mar(hy and 

 unwholefome place, fhe fcatters there poifonous 

 plants, which prefent dingy colours, and offenfive 

 fmells. There is a fpecies of arum, which grows 

 in the moraffes of Magellan's Strait, whofe flower 

 exhibits the appearance of an ulcer, and exhales 

 an odour fo ftrong of putrid flefh, that the flefh- 

 fly reforts to it to depofit her eggs. 



But 



