JO STUDIES OF NATURE. 



flowers produce feeds of which many of them arc 

 exceflîvely fond, particularly the thrudi. So that 

 this whole plant, like the perch of a parrot-cage, 

 prefents, at once, to the birds, a refling place, and 

 meat, and drink. 



We fliall, likewife, fpeak of the fmell and taftc 

 of plants. We fhall remark, under thefe rela- 

 tions, a great number of botanical characlers, 

 which are not the leaft certain. It was from the 

 fmell and tafte that Man acquired the firft know- 

 ledge of their poifonous, medicinal, or nutritive 

 qualities. Nay, the very founds of plants are not 

 to be overlooked; for, when agitated by the 

 winds, moft of them emit founds peculiar to 

 themfelves, and which produce harmonies, or con- 

 trails, the mofb agreeable, with the fîtes of the places 

 where they ufually grow. In India, the hollow 

 canes of the bamboo, which fhade the banks of 

 rivers, imitate, as they ruftle againft each other, 

 the gufhing noife excited by the motion of a fhip 

 through the water ; and the pods of the cinna- 

 mon, agitated by the winds on the mountain's top, 

 the tic-tac of a mill. The moveable leaves of the 

 poplar convey to our ears, in the wood, the bub- 

 bling of a brook. The green meadows, and the 

 calm forefls, fanned by the zephyrs, reprefent, in 

 the hollow of the valley, and on the declivity of 

 the rock, the undulations and murmurs of the 



waves 



