2S8 STUDIES OP NATURE. 



infinite multitude of muflirooms of every form, 

 and of every colour. Some of them were ihaped 

 like large fcarlet-coloured tweezer-cafes, ftudded 

 with dots of white ; others were orange-coloured 

 and formed like a parafol ; others yellow as faffron, 

 and of the oblong form of an egg. Some were of 

 the pureft white, and fo well rounded, that you 

 would have taken them for ivory draughts-men. 



Thefe molTes and muflirooms fpread along the 

 threads of water which flowed from the fummits 

 of the rocky hills, extended in long rays acrofs 

 the woods with which their fides were covered, 

 and proceeded to fkirt their extremities, till they 

 were confounded with a multitude of flrawberry 

 and rafpberry plants. Nature, to indemnify this 

 country for the fcarcity of apparent flowers to 

 pleafe the eye, of which it produces but few, has 

 beftowed their perfumes on feveral plants, fuch as 

 the calamus aromaticus, the birch which, in Spring, 

 exhales a kind of odour of rofes, and the fir, the 

 apple of which is fweet-fcented. She has, in like 

 manner, diffufed colours the mod agreeable, and 

 the mofl brilliant, of flowers, on the mofl common 

 of vegetables, fuch as on the cones of the larch, 

 which are of a beautiful violet, on the fcarlet grains 

 of the forb-apple, on moffes and muflirooms, and 

 even on turnip-radiflies. 



On 



