296 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



nor hay-maker, in the world, who could not de- 

 monftrate the contrary from his experience. 



Plants, it has been faid, are mechanical bodies. 

 Well then, try to conftruft a body fo llim, fo ten- 

 der, fo fragile, as that of a leaf, which (hall for 

 "whole years refift the winds, the rains, the keened 

 froft, the moft ardent Sun. A fpirit of life, inde- 

 pendent of all Latitudes, governs plants, preferves 

 them, re-produces them. They repair the injuries 

 which they may have fuftained, and {kin over their 

 wounds with a new rind. The pyramids of Egypt 

 are crumbled into powder ; but the grafles which 

 cloathed the foil, while the Pharaoh's filled the 

 throne, fubfift to this day. How many Greek and 

 Roman fepulchral monuments, the ftones of 

 which were rivetted with iron, have, one after an- 

 other, difappeared ! Nothing remains around their 

 ruins, except the cyprefTes which fliaded them. 



It is the Sun, fay they, who gives exiftence to 

 veo;etables, and who maintains that exiftence. But 

 that great agent of Nature, all-powerful as he is, 

 muft not be confidered as the only and determining 

 caufe even of their expanfion. If his heat invites 

 moft of thofe of our Climates to open their 

 flowers, it obliges others to ftiut them. Such are,' 

 of this laft defcription, the great nightftiade of 

 Peru, and the arbor îrijiis (the fad tree) of the Mo- 

 luccas, 



