STUDY V. 295 



it's progrefs. Such, too, is the ratan of China, 

 which frequently grows in fimilar fituations. Thefe 

 plants do not crawl from weaknefs. The fcions 

 of the ratan are fo ftrong, that the Chinefe make 

 cordage of them for their (hipping ; and when 

 they are on the ground, they ferve as a trap for 

 the deer, who find it impoffible, with all their 

 force, to difenga^e themfelves. They are nets 

 (pread out by the hand of Nature. 



I fliould never have done were I to run over, 

 ever fo haftily, the different ports of vegetables ; 

 what I have faid is evidence fufficient, that there is 

 not a fingle one whofe diredlion is determined by 

 the vertical column of the air. This error has 

 gained currency, from it's being taken for granted 

 that plants affected the greateft volume of air ; and 

 this error in Phyflcs has produced another in Geo- 

 metry ; for, on this fuppofition, they mufl all 

 precipitate themfelves to the Horizon, becaufe 

 there the column of air is much more confiderable 

 than in the Zenith. We muft, in like manner, 

 reje6t the confequences v/hich have been deduced 

 from it, and laid down, as principles of Jurifpru- 

 dence for the divifion of lands in our boalled ma- 

 thematical treatifes ; fuch is the following, That 

 no more wood, or corn, or grajs, can grow on the 

 declivities of a mountain^ than what would grow on. 

 the area of it's hafts. There is not a wood-cutter, 



u 4 nor 



