i6o On a subterraneous 



No. XIX. 



No/e coticerning a Vegetable found under Ground, hi a Let- 

 ter from Colonel Bull. 



Dear Sir, 



Read N«v. '" I ''HE inclofed is a copy of a letter from Co- 

 2ift, i3oo. J|_ lonel Bull, a gentleman of refpedtable in- 

 formation and veracity, to the late Mr. Rittenhoufe. It 

 records a curious fa£t, which appears to me to be wor- 

 thy of prefervation. You are at liberty to make any 

 ufe of it you may think proper. I fee no good reafon 

 to doubt the accuracy of the obfervation. We have abun- 

 dant proofs, that many fpecies of animals are capable 

 of fubfifting, for a long time, in the bowels of the earth, 

 though the furface of the earth appears to be, and no 

 doubt is, the natural place of refidence of thefe very ani- 

 mals. Why, then, fliould we doubt, that the fame fpe- 

 cies of vegetables are capable of accommodating them- 

 felves to thefe tvvo fituations ? It is never fafe, nor right, 

 to draw extenfive inferences from folitary fa£ls, efpeci- 

 ally when thofe fails are fomewhat equivocally related. 

 But in fome fciences (I mean thofe which are merely 

 fpeculative) conjectures, however improbable or feeble, 

 cannot do much harm. l*erhaps many of thofe impref- 

 fions of vegetables upon flate, free-ftone, coal, and other 

 flony matters, which are fo abundantly diffufed through 

 the earth, are the impreflions of vegetables which have 

 pajfed through all the fiagcs of their exiflcnce in the bow- 

 els of the earth. 



1 am, dear Sir, 



Your fmcere friend, 



BENJAMIN SMITH BARTON. 



Mr. Andrew Ellicott. 

 Philad. Sept. i-^th, 1800. 



