STUDY I. 



13 



form of it's flowers, and that of it's fruit, the feeds 

 of which are on the outfide ? Has it not, befides, 

 an affinit)' with the eglantine and the rofe-tree, as 

 to the flower ; with the mulberry, as to the fruit; 

 and with the trefoil itfelf, as to the leaves ; one 

 fpecies of which, common in the environs of Paris, 

 bears, likewife, it's feeds aggregated into the form 

 of a fl:rawberry, from which it derives the botanic 

 name of tnfoUum fragiferum^ the fl:ravvberry-bearing 

 trefoil ? Now, if we refleâ:, that all thefe fpecies, 

 varieties, analogies, affinities, have, in every parti- 

 cular latitude, neceflary relations with a multitude 

 of animals, and that thefe relations are altogether 

 unknown to us, we fl:iall find, that a complete Hif- 

 tory of the ftrawberry-plant would be ample em- 

 ployment for all the Naturalifts in the world. 



What a tafk, then, would it be, to write the 

 Hifl:ory, in like manner, of all the fpecies of vege- 

 tables, fcattered over the face of the whole Earth ? 

 The celebrated Linndm reckoned up from feven 

 to eight thoufand of them ; but he had not tra- 

 velled. The famous Shcrard, it is faid, was ac- 

 quainted with fixteen thoufand. Another Botanifl 

 fwells his catalogue up to twenty thoufand. Finally, 

 one fliill more modern, boaflis of having himfelf 

 made a colledion of twenty-five thoufand ; and he 

 eflimates the number of thofe which he has not 

 feen, at four or five times as many. But ail thefe 



enumerations 



