jPHTSICi^L AND LITERARY. 241 



affords a proper />tf^«/«;/2 for vegetables j and 

 the great diftindtion of plants, which com- 

 monly lies inavery fmall.part, and that too 

 the mofl volatile, being taken away by pu- 

 trefadion, all vegetables, when reduced ta 

 that flate, feem to be pretty much upon a 

 par for' that purpofe. Now, to return to 

 what I. intended to fay, and to which what 

 I have mentioned was only a kind of pre- 

 amble y Peat mofs, being wholly a vege- 

 table matter, muft, if reduced to a thorough 

 flate. of putrefadion, anfwer the fame pur- 

 pofes for fertilizing ground as other putrefied 

 vegetables. While it lies in the mofs, there 

 is too great a quantity of water, to raife a 

 fufEcient degree of heat, to bring the ve»- 

 getables of which peat-mofs is compofed, 

 whether actually growing, decaying, or de- 

 cayed, to a compleat degree of putrefadlion. 

 But if it were taken out of the mofs, and laid 

 in heaps like other vegetables to rot, with a 

 degree of moiflure fuitable for that purpofe j 

 and if, to begin and alfo quicken the putrefa- 

 dlion, green frefh fucculent plants were em- 

 ployed in a fufiicient quantity firfl to raife a 

 heat; this I make no doubt would, by commu- 

 nicating it to the moffy fubflance, in a fuitable 

 Vol. II. H h time. 



