•which are Parajitics of the IV heat. 1 25 



Fmgi by Mefl". Withering, Woodward, Dickfoii, Bolton, Sowerby, 

 &c. yet the knowledge of this clafs of vegetables is adhuc in incuna- 

 bulis, and many years muft elapfe before we may expefi to fee it 

 upon the fame firm footing with the other branches of botany. 

 There is fcarcely a leaf (at lead of trees and Ihrubs) falls to the 

 ground, that has not its peculiar Fungus, which, afTifted by humi- 

 dity, reduces it to its original earth. The fame obfervation may 

 be extended to flicks (w) and ftalks, and many other fubflances. 

 The more we attend to thefe things, the further we fhall fee into 

 the plan of Divine Providence, and, every ftep we take, be more and 

 more convinced that there is nothing either deficient or fuperfluous; 

 but that all things are created in weight and meafiire, and work to- 

 gether (whether their office be to preferve or to defiroy) to promote 

 the befl ends by the mod efficacious means. 



■ (.w) Mr. Sowerby, in his Englijfi Fungi (vol. ii. tab. cxxxvii), has given the name of 

 ■dcarticata to a particular fpecies of Spharia, as fuggelled by me, probably owing to try 

 bad writing. The name I intended was dccoriicans, from the circumflance of its growing 

 under the bark, and finally occafioning it to peel off. 



XI. Ca- 



