STUDY XI. 321 



contact with it, the roots of herbage fuftain no 

 great injury from it. 



They have, moreover, the faculty of re-pro- 

 ducing themfelves in three different ways, by 

 moots which pufh away from their roots, by creep- 

 ing branches, which they extend to a diftance, 

 and by grains extremely volatile or indigeftible, 

 which the winds and the animals fcatter about on 

 every fide. The greatefl part of trees, on the con- 

 trary, naturally regenerate themfelves only by their 

 feeds. Add to the general advantages of graffes, 

 an aftonifliing variety of characters, in their flori- 

 fication and in their attitudes, which renders them 

 more proper than vegetables of every other clafs, 

 to grow in every variety of fituation. 



It is in this cofmopolite family, if I may be al- 

 lowed the expreffion, that Nature has placed the 

 principal aliment of Man ; for the various fpecies 

 of corns, on which fo many human tribes fubfift, 

 are only fo many fpecies of graffes. There is no 

 land on the Globe where fome kind of corn or an- 

 other may not be raifed. Homer, who had ftudied 

 Nature fo accurately, frequently characterizes each 

 country by the vegetable peculiar to it. One ifland 

 he celebrates for it's grapes, another for it's olive- 

 trees, a third for it's laurels, and a fourth for it's 

 palms j but to the Earth only he gives the general 



vol. in. y epithet 



