STUDY I. 53 



fpringing, catching, &c. and are fufceptible of va- 

 rious other movements, (hall be allotted to the 

 Earth, properly fo called. 



This reference of plants to Geography, prefents 

 to us, at once, a great general order of eafy com- 

 prehenfion, and a multitude of fubdivifions, which 

 we may run over, very agreeably, in detail. Firft, 

 their genera divide themfelves, like thofe of ani- 

 mals, into aerial, aquatic, and terreftrial. Then, 

 their clafles are fubdivided relatively to the Zones, 

 and to the degrees of latitude of each Zone ; fuch 

 are, to the South, the clafs of palms, and, to the 

 North, that of firs ; and their fpecies to the terri- 

 tory of that Zone, according as it is champaign, 

 mountainous, rocky, marfliy, &c. Accordingly, 

 in the clafs of palms, the cocoa- tree of the fea- 

 fliore, the latanier on the ftrand, the date of the 

 rocks, the palmift of the mountains, and fo on, 

 crown the various fites of the torrid Zone; whereas 

 in that of firs, the pine, the fpruce, the larch, the 

 cedar, &c. divide among themfelves the empire of 

 the North. This order, by putting every vege- 

 table in it's natural place, furnifhes us, befides, 

 with the means of tracing the ufe of all it's parts ; 

 and, I am bold enough to affirm, of tracing the 

 reafons which have determined Nature to vary 

 their form, and to create fo many fpecies of the 

 fame genus, and fo many varieties of the fame fpe- 



E 2 cies. 



