195 



poppy, mustard, Jern. And we must not forget, that 

 most vegetables are propagated different ways; \\ hereas 

 animals are for tl}e n>o:-t j>art propagated only by one. 



.1 



A tree may be made to form as many trees as it has 

 branches, boughs, and even leaves. Plants, which are 

 principally designed to supply the necessities of < limals, 

 cannot be endued with too great a degree of fecundity J 



I/. There is hardly any sight more interesting, than 

 that which the infinitely varied forms of plants Lnd ani- 

 mals afford. If one compares the less perfect species 

 with more perfect, or the species of the same class with 

 each other, he is equally strurk with the diversity of mo- 

 dels, by which nature has performed her woiks in the 

 vegetable and animal kingdom 1 '. He passes with asto- 

 nishment from the swinslrcad to the sensitive plant, 

 from the mushroom to the carnation, from the night- 

 shade to the oak, from the ivy to t\icjir~tr;:c. He con- 

 siders with surprise the prodigious multitude of mi^h- 

 rooms and liverworts, and can never enough admire the 

 fecundity of nature in the production of these plants. 



As he goes on to plants that are more elevated in the 

 scale, he stops with pleasure to examine those plants that 

 have stalks, from the grass which grows between the 

 stones to that precious plant, whose ear furnishes us 

 with the most wholesome food. He considers the vari- 

 ous plants that creep, from the tender bind-weed to the 

 vine branch which crowns our hills. He likewise takes 

 a survey of those trees which bear fruit with stones, 

 from the wild plumb-tree to the peach, whose fruit does 

 not excite our admiration more by the softness of its 

 velvet covering and beautiful colour, than by the abund- 

 ance and exquisite taste of the liquor it yields. 



If from the vegetable, he transports himself into the 

 animal kingdom, the prospect becomes still more in- 

 teresting. He sees opposed to each other in the same 

 portrait, the polypus and tea-dog, the day -fly 



VOL, iv. K. 



