137 



native juice, and subtilized by fermentation, insinuate 

 themielves into all parts of it. Part of this nourishes 

 the plant and forms the fruit, the residue transpires. 

 But as all particles are not equally fit to enter thepore* 

 of every plant, neither can all be fermented into a juice 

 proper to nourish it ; the reason is plain 3 why every 

 plant will not flourish in every soil. 



It is remarkable that trees of very different kinds 

 draw their whole sustenance from the moisture they find 

 in the same piece of ground, and from the ambient air 

 and dews. Hence .we may inter, that the very con- 

 texture of their bodies form the first seed, are the natu. 

 ral limbecs where the common water and air are digested 

 into so many different leaves and fruits. 



We see also, that a handful of moss, sometimes above 

 a span long, grows out of a small oyster-shell, with- 

 out any earth, as do trees out of bare rocks. Hence 

 we easily learn, that the seeds first, and then the roots, 

 stems, and leaves of trees, are the strainers which se- 

 Crete and generate their peculiar saps and juices. 

 These are at first little else than pure air and watery 

 till they are concreted in peculiar salts, by more cu- 

 rious strainers, and more subtle boilers than art has 

 ever advised. 



10. The ancients generally supposed the earth to 

 produce vegetables; many of the moderns ascribe it to 

 water alone ; but it is a doubt whether the experiment 

 vras made with the nicety that is requisite. And it 

 proves nothing, unless that water be quite pure from 

 any terrestrial mixture, For if it be not, the plant 

 may owe its whole growth to that terrestrial matter. 



Who can find any water, newly taken out of the 

 spring, which does not exhibit even to the naked eye, 

 great numbers of small terrestrial particles, dispersed 

 through every part of it ? These are of two general 

 kinds. Some are of a mineral nature, others ol a ve- 

 getable. Of the latter some are fit to. nourish one 

 plant, or one part of it, and some another. All water 

 is much charged with vegetable matter, which is fiue f 



