350 HISTORY OF 



of improvement and decay ; they are capable of 

 reproducing their kinds ; they grow from seeds 

 in some, and from cuttings in others ; they seem 

 all possessed of sensation, in a greater or less 

 degree ; they both have their enmities and affec- 

 tions; and, as some animals are by nature im- 

 pelled to violence, so some plants are found to 

 exterminate all others, and make a wilderness of 

 the places round them. As the lion makes a de- 

 sert of the forest where it resides, thus no other 

 plant will grow under the shade of the man- 

 chineel tree. Thus, also, that plant in the West 

 Indies called caraguata, clings round whatever 

 tree it happens to approach; there it quickly 

 gains the ascendant, and, loading the tree with 

 a verdure not its own, keeps away that nourish- 

 ment designed to feed the trunk, and at last 

 entirely destroys its supporter. 



As all animals are ultimately supported upon 

 vegetables, so vegetables are greatly propagated 

 by being made a part of animal food. Birds dis- 

 tribute the seeds wherever they fly, and quad- 

 rupeds prune them into greater luxuriance. By 

 these means, the quantity of food in a state of 

 nature is kept equal to the number of the con- 

 sumers ; and, lest some of the weaker ranks of 

 animals should find nothing for their support, but 

 all the provisions be devoured by the strong, dif- 

 ferent vegetables are appropriated to different ap- 

 petites. If, transgressing this rule, the stronger 

 ranks should invade the rights of the weak, and, 

 breaking through all regard to appetite, should 

 make an indiscriminate use of every vegetable, 



