68 



If there is any one character peculiar to the animal, 

 it is that of being furnished with nerves. 



6. The plant which seems to occupy the lowest place 

 in the scale of vegetables, is a small unformed mass, in 

 which the eye can only perceive a kind of marbling, 

 without any distinct part. This plant is the truffle, the 

 seeds of which are discovered by the microscope. 



At. a small distance from these is the numerous family 

 of mushrooms and agarics, which would be taken for 

 different kinds of excrescenses, were it not that the eye, 

 by the assistance of a glass, can discover flower and 

 seeds in their folds or cavities. 



Liverworts, equal in the number of their species to 

 nit Brooms, noaiiy resemble them. They cleave to the 

 surface of stones, dry wood, trees, &c. sometimes like 

 brown spots, at others in pieces of a circular form, of a 

 grey or yellow colour, composed of small shells or nobs, 

 or notched like fringe, lace, &c. The seeds are contain- 

 ed in small capsules, invisible to the naked eye, as are 

 likewise the flowers. 



Mosses seem to be a species between the mush- 

 rooms and liverworts; they delight in shade and 

 moisture, arid cling to various sorts of bodies. The 

 filaments which issue from them are often of a cotton- 

 like nature, and bear flower and seeds. 



7. Plants are of three very distinct sorts : 



The first, which are for the most part of a smalt size, 

 delicate constitution, inactive, and abounding in hu- 

 mours, live but a short time ; a year is comnioniy the 

 term of their life. 



The second, which are for the most part of a gigan- 

 tic size, robuui constitution, hard, and not so full of 

 humours, live many years, and even for several ages. 



The third bear a mean proportion between the first 

 and second. 



