396} 
slightest shade of that colour, Na- 
ture ‘seems‘to have withheld from 
the creature this shining hue, be- 
cause it could serve only to ren- 
der him perceptible as a greater 
distance ; and farther, because this 
colour is that of the ground of no 
species of earth, or of vegetable, 
on which he is designed to pass his 
life. 
But, in the age of weakness and 
inexperience, nature confounds 
the colour of the harmless animals, 
with that of the ground on which 
they inhabit, without committing 
to them the power of choice. The 
young of pigeons, and of most 
granivorous fowls, are clothed with 
a greenish shaggy coat, resembling 
the mosses of the nests. Cater- 
pillars are blind, and have the 
complexion of the foliage, and of 
the barks, which they devour. 
Nay, thé young fruits, before they 
come to be armed with prickles, 
or inclosed in cases, in bitter pulps, 
in hard shells, to prote¢t their 
seeds, are, during the seasonof their 
expansion, green as the leaves 
which surround them. Some em. 
bryons, it is true, such as those of 
certain pears, are ruddy or brown ; 
but they are then of the colour of 
the bark of the tree to which they 
belong. When those fruits have in- 
closed their secds in kernels, or nuts, 
so as to be in no farther danger, they 
then change colour. ‘They become 
yellow, blue, gold-coloured, red, 
back, and give to their respective 
trecs their natural contrasts. It 
is strikingly remarkable, that every 
fait which has changed colour has 
seed in a state of maturity. 
It is in the countries of the 
North, and on. the summit of cold 
mountains, thatthe pine grows, 
and the,fir, and the cedar, and most 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1796. 
part of resinous trees, which shelter 
man from the snows by the close- 
ness of their foliage, and which 
furnish him, during the winter 
season, with torches, and fuel for 
his fire-side. It is very remark- 
able, that the leaves of those ever- 
green trees are filifrm, and are 
extremely adapted, by this confi. 
guration, which possesses the far- 
ther advantage of reverberating the 
heat, like the hair of animals, for 
resistance to the impetuosity of the 
winds, that-beat with peculiar vio. 
lence on elevated situations. The 
Swedish naturalists have observed, 
that the fattest pines are to be 
found on the dryest and most sandy 
regions of Norway. . The larch, 
which takes equal pleasure in the 
cold mountains, has a very resi« 
nous trunk. 
Mathiola, in his useful commen. 
tary on Dioscorides, informs us, 
that there is no substance more pro- 
per than the charcoal of these trees, 
tor promptly melting the iron mi- 
nerals, in the vicinity of which 
they peculiarly thrive. They are, 
besides, loaded with mosses, some 
species of which catch fire from 
the slightest spark. He relates, 
that being obliged, oo a certain 
occasion, to‘pass the night in the 
lofty ‘mountains of the strait of 
Trento, where he was botanizing, 
‘he found there a great quantity of 
larches (/arix,) bearded all over, to 
use his own expression, and com- 
pletely whitened with moss. ‘The 
shepherds of the place, willing to 
amuse him, set fire to the mosses 
of some of these trees, which was 
immediately communicated with’ 
the rapidity of gunpowder touched’ 
with a match. Amidst the ob. 
‘scurity of the night, the flame and_ 
the sparks seem to ascend up : 
the 
