186 PLANTS. 



PLANTS. 



A. Plants the most valuable for food are the mos t 

 abundant and easily procured. It is an evident de- 

 sign also of a kind Providence, that plants are so 

 various, as to be adapted to all changes and vicissi- 

 tudes of weather and climate the seasons which are 

 less favorable to some are propitious to others. Di- 

 versities of soil of hill and valley are so many 

 different advantages for different vegetables, and for 

 the same vegetable. 



It agrees with the same view of the subject to re- 

 mark that fruits are not, (which they might have 

 been), ready altogether, but that they ripen in succes- 

 sion throughout a great part of the year ; some in 

 summer ; some in autumn ; and that some require 

 the slow maturation of the winter, and supply the 

 spring. The most hardy of all plants is the grass. 

 It will bear to be trodden by the animals which have 

 to walk over the fields on which they graze. Of all 

 productions of the earth this is the most universal 

 happily for the numerous tribes whose indispensable 

 food it is, and which could neither transport it them- 

 selves, nor for which, valuable as they are to man> 

 could he afford to procure so bulky an article from 

 any considerable distance. 



The warmer latitudes abound in fruits adapted to 

 allay thirst and mitigate heat ; such as the lime, the 

 lemon, the orange, the melon, and all acid and 



