STUDY XI. 315 



Among others, I took particular notice of one, 

 ïn a garden on the Ifle of France, which to me ap- 

 peared proper for compofing a fence impenetrable 

 Co the fmalleft of quadrupeds. It rifes in form of 

 a (lake, about the thicknefs of a man's arm, quite 

 ftraight, without branches, and bearing no ver- 

 dure except a fmall bunch of leaves on it's fummit. 

 It's bark is bridled all over with very ftrong, and 

 very (harp prickles. It attains the height of {even 

 or eight feet, and grows as thick above as below. 

 A feries of thefe fhrubs, planted clofe to each 

 other, would form a real pallifado, without the 

 fmalleft interval. The opuntia and the taper, fo 

 common under the Torrid Zone, are armed with 

 prickles fo keen, that they pierce the foles of your 

 fhoes if you venture to walk over them. There is 

 not a tyger, or lion, or elephant, that dares to ap- 

 proach them. There is another fpecies of thorn, 

 in the Ifland of Ceylon, which is employed as a de- 

 fence againft Man himfelf, accuftomed as he is to 

 force his way through every obftacle. Robert Knox, 

 whom I have before quoted, informs us, that the 

 avenues of the kingdom of Candy, in the Ifland of 

 Ceylon, are blockaded only with faggots of thofe 

 thorns, with which the inhabitants obftruct the 

 parles of their mountains. 



Man finds in vegetables, protection, not only 

 againft ferocious animals, but againft reptiles and 



infects. 



