168 



Though vegetables have not like animals, an en- 

 gine which by its alternate dilatations and contractions 

 drives (heir juices through them, yet has nature con- 

 trived other means, powerfully to raise the sap and 

 keep it in motion. And their roots are co?ered with 

 a very fine thick strainer, that nothing may enter 

 but. what can be readily carried off by perspiration. 



That there is a lateral communication of the sap 

 ressels in plants, as of the blood vessels in animals, 

 plainly appears from the experiment of inarching 

 trees. For when three wall trees are thus incorpo- 

 rated, the root of the middlemost may be dug up, 

 and the tree will grow still, as receiving nourishment 

 from the trees with which it is connected. And hence 

 elders, willows, vines, and most shrubs, will grow 

 with their tops downward in the earth. For the 

 same reason, if you frequently in an evening wash 

 the bodies of new planted trees, they will grow 

 quicker and better than any others of the same plan- 

 tation. 



22. If the top of a Viburnum is planted in the 

 ground, it becomes roots, and the roots turned up 

 become branches, and the plant grows exactly as well 

 as it did in its natural position, whether the ves- 

 sels which fed the branches have changed their course 

 or whether the juices go up and down the same 

 vessels, 



23. I cannot better conclude this chapter, than by 

 tracing the analogy between the propagation of 

 animals and that of vegetables. The roes of fishes, 

 the eggs or insects, birds, and all other animals near- 

 ly resemble each other. They are compact bodies of 

 such form as best suit their natures. They ail have 

 integuments nobly contrived for their preservation, 

 with firm coverings to secure them from outward in- 

 juries. Those to be kept in the body have coverings 

 also, but soft and membranous. Every kind con- 



