IV,. AND REVIVED. a8¢ 
ty, but in an irritability which, after ceffation, 
may be renewed by means of certain, circum. 
. ftances, though it otherwife appears to be lefs 
active than in other animals. 
If this hypothefis does not feem fully applica- 
ble to plants, in what concerns their irritability, 
fince we know only a very {mall number poffef- 
fing that property, {tii it may be applied to what 
refpects their organization. Dried plants in ge- 
neral do not recover life, probably becaufe they 
are fo much injured in drying as to become in- 
capable of imbibing the juices provided, and 
_conyerting them into their own fubitance. Thence 
do they perifh, and are totally deftroyed. If iuch 
diforder is not occafioned by drying, and the or- 
ganic action of plants revives when they are foft- 
ened, and refume their original form, it is un- 
doubted that they will then recover their priftine 
verdure and natural frefhnefs. This may be the 
phyfical caufe why the tremella, noftoc, and fome 
other vegetables revive. 
This traét may be terminated with fome re- 
fleGtions on thofe beings which we can kill and. 
bring to life at pleafure. When prefented to the 
mind we are aftonifhed, becaufe they are ifolated 
beings: they form a feparate clafs, and the ideas 
they fuggeft are adverfe to thofe received of the 
animated world. But when it is proved by a 
feries of innumerable. facts, that all is, gradated in 
nature, 
