STUDY I. 



51 



is this prejudice which renders the ftudy of Geo- 

 graphy fo infipid ; but I venture to affirm that, 

 after perufing my trivial obfervations, the courfe of 

 a rivulet, on a map, will appear more agreeable thaa 

 the port of a plant in a Botanift's herbiil, and 

 the topography of a place, as interefting as it's 

 landfcape. 



In the THIRD PART of this Work, I will (hew 

 how the different parts of plants are difpofed in 

 correfpondence with the Elements, in fuch a man- 

 ner that, far from being a neceffary produdlion of 

 theirs, as fome Philofophers pretend, they are, on 

 the contrary, almoft always in oppofition to their 

 adtion. I (hall refer, therefore, their flowers to 

 the Sun j the thicknefs of their barks, the fcurf 

 which covers their buds, the hair, the down, the 

 refinous fubftances with which they are cloth- 

 ed, to the abfence of folarheatj the pliancy, or 

 ftiffnefs, of their fhems, to the different impulfions 

 of the Air; their leaves, to the waters of Heaven ; 

 finally, their roots, to fands, to mires, to rocks, by 

 their fibres, their pivots, and their long cordage. 

 This lad relation of plants to the Earth is, if I 

 may judge, the moft important of all, though the 

 leafl obferved, for there is not a fingle one, but 

 what is attached to it, whether it floats in water^ 

 or balances itfelf in the air; no one but derives 

 part, at leafl, of it's nutriment from thence, and, 



E 2 in 



