STUDY I. 21 



tliirty thoufand diflinâ: fpecies of animals. I 

 know not whether the King's magnificent Cabinet 

 may not contain more ; but I know well, that his 

 Herbals contain only eighteen thoufand plants^ 

 and that about fix thoufand are in a ftate of culti- 

 vation in the Royal Botanic Garden. This num- 

 ber of animals, however, fo fuperior to that of ve- 

 getables, is a mere nothing, in comparifon with 

 what exifts on the Globe. 



When we recolleâ:, that every fpecies of plant 

 is a point of union for different genera of infecls, 

 and that there is not, perhaps, a fingle one, but 

 which has, peculiar to itfelf, a fpecies of fly, 

 butterfly, gnat, beetle, lady-bird, fnail, &c. that 

 thefe infedts ferve for food, to other fpecies, 

 and thefe exceedingly numerous, fuch as the fpi- 

 der, the dragon-fly, the ant, the formicaleo j and 

 to the immenfe families of, fmall birds, of which 

 many clafies, fuch as the wood-pecker, and the 

 fwallow, have no other kind of nourifliment ; that 

 thefe birds are, in their turn, devoured by birds 

 of prey, fuch as kites, falcons, buzzards, rooks, 

 crows, hawks, vultures, &c. that the general fpoil 

 of thefe animals, fweeped off by the rains, into the 

 rivers, and thence to the Sea, becomes the aliment 

 of almofb innumerable tribes of fifhes, to the 

 greateft part of which the Naturalifts of Europe 

 have not hitherto given a name 5 that numberlefs 



c 3 legions 



