172 



for awhile, themselves issue from the sides of the 

 parent. 



If \ve observe the extreme tenderness of this ani- 

 mal, liable to be wounded, nay torn in pieces, by any 

 hard body, which is carried down the streams, or 

 moved in the ponds, wherein they dvyell ; we see the 

 providential reason, for this contrivance to propa. 

 gate them, as perhaps no other animal is of so 

 tender a texture, and so easily destroyed, having 

 neither sagacity to avoid danger, nor strength to bear 

 the least violence. 



Other trees have been propagated by a still more 

 surprising way. One having caused some ashen pipes 

 that had brought water to his fountain twelve years 

 to be taken up, they were left in the yard, where 

 they rotted almost entirely. But in their room there 

 shot up a young forest of ashes, which are now about 

 four feet high. There is no ash tree within a great 

 distance of the yard. Where then were the seeds 

 from which they sprung ? 



24. Mr. Bonet of Geneva was inclined to try 

 whether plants would grow, when planted in moss 

 instead of earth. So he filled several garden-pots 

 with moss, and compressed it more or less, as he 

 judged the several plants might require a closer or a 

 looser soil. 



Ho then sowed therein wheat, barley, oats, and 

 peas. And he found first, that all the grains thus 

 sown, came to maturity later than those of the same 

 sorts which had been sown in mould. 2. That the 

 stems from the seeds sown in moss, were generally 

 taller than those sown in earth. 3. That there came 

 more blades from the grains sown in moss, than from 

 those sown in the ground. 4. The grains sown in 

 moss produced more plentifully than the others. 5. 

 The grains gathered from the corn which grew on the- 

 mess, having been sown again partly in moss, and 

 parily in earth, succeeded well in both. 



He also planted in moss, pinks, daisies, tulips, 



