374 M E M O I R S of fie 
arrive to its natural ilaturej or if there be any the lefs ncceflary 
and eflential corpufcles wanting, there will be Ibme failure in 
the plant, either in tafle, fmell, colour, or feme other way: 
Tho' a trafl of land may happen not to contain matter proper 
for the coniluution of feme one peculiar kind of plant, yet it 
may for feveral others, and thofe differing much among them- 
felvcs3 the vegetative particles are blended together in the 
earth, with ali the diverfity and variety, as well as with all 
the uncerrainty conceivable ^ fo that it is not poffible to imagine, 
how one, uniform, homogeneous matter, having its principles 
or original parts all of the fame fubftance, conftitution, magni- 
tude, figure, and gravity, fliould ever conftitute bodies fo 
cgregioufly unlike in all thofe refpeds, as vegetables of diffe- 
rent kinds are, nay, even as the different parts of the fame 
vegetable ; that one (hould carry a refinous, another a milky, a 
third a yellow, a fourth a red juice in its veins ^ one affords a 
fragrant, another an offenfive fmell -, one may be fwect to the tafte, 
another bitter, acrid, acerb, auftere, ^c, that one fhall be nou- 
rishing, another poisonous, one purging, another ailringent^ in 
fhort, that there fhould be that vafl*" difference in them, as to 
their feveral conftitutions, make properties and effe6^s, and yet all 
arife from the very fame fort of matter, feems to be very flranoe. 
The Cataputia in the glafs E received but very little increafe, 
only 3 y grains all the while it flood there, tho' 2501 grains of 
water were fpent upon it 5 the realon of this, may be that the 
water was not a proper medium for it to grow in ^ and it is 
known, that feveral plants will not thrive in it 5 too much of that 
liquor in ibme plants may probably hurry the terreflrial matter 
thro* their veffels too fafl for them to attract, and lay hold of it; 
be that as it will, it is mod certain that there are peculiar foils that 
fuit peculiar plants j in England, cherries are oblerved to thrive 
befl in Kent, apples in Herefordpire, faffron in Cambridgefiire^ 
wood in two or three of our midland counties, and teafles in 
Somerfetpire '^ this is an obfervation that hath held in all parts of 
the world : Yet that foil that is once proper for the production 
of feme one fort of vegetable, does not flill continue to be fb j for, 
m procels of time itloles that property, but fboner in fome lands, 
and later in others 3 if wheat, for example, be fown upon a piece 
of land, that is proper for that grain, the firfl crop will thrive 
very well, and perhaps the fecond and the third, as long as the 
ground is in heart, as the farmers call it 5 but in a few years it 
Will produce no more, if fow'd with that grain j it is true, it 
may fome other, as barley 5 and after this has been fown io often, 
that 
