WITH VEGETABLES AND MINERALS. 3 



and the manchineel-tree cannot endure a near approach ; 

 the serpent and the poisonous weed occupy a larger space 

 than the harmless useful animal and the salutary plant. 

 Thus in this point we trace a similitude between the two 

 classes ; and if we consider them with regard to the places 

 of their growth, we shall find the affinity still stronger. 

 The vegetables produced in a dry and sunny soil are strong 

 and vigorous, though not prolific and luxuriant ; so also 

 are the animals which range in a similar climate. Warmth 

 and moisture, on the contrary, render vegetables luxuriant 

 and tender ; and the animals assimilating to the nature of 

 such food are bulky and flaccid. Hence we find in the 

 warm regions of America and Africa, where the sun 

 commonly scorches all the upper grounds, and inunda- 

 tions cover all the lower, that even the irtsect and reptile 

 tribes acquire an extraordinary size. The earth-worm of 

 the tropical climates in America is often a yard long, and 

 as thick as a walking-stick ; the boiguacu, or ox-serpent, 

 reaches to the length of forty feet ; the bats are much 

 larger than our domestic fowls ; and the spiders may vie 

 in size with the frogs and toads of temperate regions. On 

 the contrary, within the arctic circle, where vegetation is 

 impeded by the rigour of the climate, animal life, through 

 all its various classes, sensibly partakes in the diminution. 

 If again we contemplate the vegetables and animals pecu- 

 liar to the water, we shall not fail to find new correspond- 

 ences, and to recognise how well the nature of the one 

 is adapted to the necessities of the other. 



Thus it is evident, that animals and vegetables, in al- 

 most every instance, have a tendency to approximate 

 towards each other ; and, in some cases, the links that 

 unite them are distinctly marked: in general, however, it 

 may be observed, that the more perfect races of animals 

 recede the farthest from vegetable nature ; and that, in 

 proportion to the inferiority of the animal, the affinity of 

 the two classes is perceptibly nearer. Thousands of the 

 more humble and minute insect tribes are confined to a 

 single plant, or even to a single leaf, and their whole term 

 B 2 



