194 Plants. 



with its stagnated juices gradually hard- 

 ening into wood forms the concentric 

 circles, which we see in blocks of timber, 

 which annual rings serve as natural marks 

 to distinguish the age of trees. 



The botanist follows nature into her 

 most retired abodes, and views htr in 

 her simple state, and native m^-stv. 

 He remarks some of her productions 

 figured by cultivation in gardens, wh 

 amid all the varieties of thr apple and 

 the pear ? however distinguished by th^ir 

 colour, size and taste, he observes, that 

 there is but one original species c;f each, 

 and that they have respectively but one 

 radical character. He beholds the won- 

 derful prodigality of nature, even in the 

 composition of the common daisy, which 

 consists of more than two hundred flow- 

 ers, each including its respective corolla, 

 germ, pistil, stamina, and seed, as per- 

 fectly formed as those of a complete lily, 

 or hyacinth. And he sees this diversity 

 as fully illustrated in the different sorts 

 of grass, a term which, although it com- 

 monly conveys only one notion to tfae Vul- 

 gar mind, and one object to the undis- 

 ce^rning eye, consists of five hundred dif- 



