Penfyfaani4& journey to Wilmington. 119 



THE Datura Stramonium* or "Thorn Apple % 

 grows in great quantities near all the villages. 

 Its height is different according to the foil it is 

 in. For in a rich foil it grows eight or ten feet 

 high, but in a hard and poor ground, it will fel- 

 dom come up to fix inches. This Datura* to- 

 gether 



fervation was not at all exaft; for as the common mould feldom 

 exceeds a foot, it muft from thence follow, that fince the deluge 

 no more than 2400 years were elapfed, though the fcripture chro- 

 nology reckons upwards of 4000 years fince that event : befides 

 this, he remarks, that mould always becomes more dry and com- 

 preffed, where it is out of the reach of rain and fnow ; and where 

 it is expofed to rain, it is carried off to lower places, and there- 

 fore increafes and decreafes according to the qualities of its local 

 fituation. Moreover, vegetables, it is known, profper the bed 

 where mould is found. As the furface of our globe has been co- 

 vered with vegetables fmce the deluge, they muft have had a 

 mould to grow in ever lince that timej confequently it is highly- 

 probable, that there muft have been a mould covering the furface 

 of our globe ever fince the firft origin. I mould be led, by fome 

 other confederations, to doubt of the infallibility of this rule for 

 the increafe of mould. In Rujfia, on this fide the river Volga 9 

 are high and extenfive plains, which have been uncultivated ever 

 fince the deluge ; for, we know from hiftory, that the Scythians, 

 Sannatians, Huns, Cbazars, and Mogols, were fucceffively the 

 mafters of thefe vaft countries, and were altogether nomadic na- 

 tions, who lived without agriculture : the country has been with- 

 out wood fince time immemorial, nor could there even fpring up 

 any wood whatfoever, fince its rambling poffeflbrs every fpring 

 fet fire to the old dry grafs, in order to make room for the new 

 grafs, which, in the latter end of May, I found come up very 

 near to my waift. And thefe vaft, defart plains, I faw every 

 where covered with at lead two feet mould ; nay, in fome places 

 it amounted to four feet ; this would give, according to^he 

 former rule of half an inch per century, 4800 years, in the firft 

 inftance ; and, in the fecond, 9600 years ; and therefore mews, 

 that this rule for calculating the increafe of mould is very preca- 

 rious. The chemical analyfis of plants fhews, that they confifl 

 of water, earth, acid, alkali, oil, and an inflammable principle, 

 independent of the laft fubftance, and called by a late German che- 

 mill, the cauftic : thefe fubftances muft enter yearly the new- 

 plants, and make their fubftance, and are as it were regenerated 



14 ia 



