37^ STUDIES Of NATURE. 



animals, which pofTefs correfpondëhcies with it, to 

 us ftill unknown. Their harmonies might, un- 

 doubtedly, be extended fntich farther ; for, many 

 plants feem to have relations not only to the Sun, 

 but to different confteliations. It is not always 

 fuch an elevation of the Sun above the Horizon 

 which elicits the vegetative powers of plants. Such 

 a one flourilhes in the Spring, which would not put 

 out the fmallefl; leaf in Autumn, though it might 

 then undergo the fame degree of heat. The fame 

 thing is obfervable with refpedt to their feeds, 

 which germinate and fhoot at one feafon, and not 

 at another, though the temperature may be the 

 fame. 



Thefe celeftial relations were known to the an- 

 cient Philofophy of the Egyptians, and of Pytha- 

 goras. We find many obfervations on this fubjecft 

 in Pliny ; when he fays, for example, that toward 

 the rifing of the Pleiades, the olive-trees and vines 

 conceive their fruit ; and, after Firgil, that wheat 

 ought to be fown immediately on the retiring of 

 this coiiftellation ; and lentils on that of Bootes; 

 that reeds and willows fliould be planted, when 

 the conftellation of the Lyre is fetting. It was 

 afrer thefe relations, the caufes of which are un- 

 known to us, that Limiaus formed, with the flowers 

 of plants, a botanical almanac, of which P/iny fug- 

 geiled the firfl idea to the hufbandmen of his 



time. 



