Ix INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 



fhown a vafl variety of mould both in colour and 

 fpecies. Some long jflender filaments crowned 

 by a globule, fome thick btifhes with fruit on 

 every branch, fome very fhort, and confifling al- 

 moll of duft. Then in one place a green fpot ; 

 in another, lead colour, blue, red, or yellow. 

 Whether is it more probable, that all the feeds, 

 producing this infinite variety, have fallen from 

 the air of the receiver, that they are communi- 

 cated by the moiftening liquid, or form a part of 

 the bread and flour ; the laft fuppofition is not 

 the mod difficult : it is the readied method of 

 accounting for the extraordinary abundance and 

 univerfal exiftence of mould. 



But wherefore all this anxiety for framing theo- 

 ries. Let us be better acquainted with the king- 

 doms of nature ; and, by deep inveftigation, en- 

 deavour to become intimately acquainted with the 

 real properties of plants and animals. 



To defcrlbe the prodigious variety of mould 

 would require a volume : it would be a metho- 

 dical fyflem of botany. A fleece of long white 

 mould will cover one fubftance ; and it is fome- 

 times fo fhort as to have hardly any fenfible 

 length. The flialk of a few fpecies is articulated 

 like a flalk of corn. In general, it is flraight, 

 liender, and tranfparent. Sometimes it confifts- 



of 



