228 A COMPARISON OF ANIMALS 



kinds, their bees and spiders being not halt so large as 

 those in the temperate zone. 



The similitude between vegetables and animals is no- 

 where more obvious than in those that belong to the ocean, 

 where the nature of one is admirably adapted to the ne- 

 cessities of the other. This element, it is well-known, has 

 its vegetables, and its insects that feed upon them in great 

 abundance. Over many tracts of the sea, a weed is seen 

 floating, which covers the surface, and gives the resem- 

 blance of a green and extensive meadow. On the under 

 side of these unstable plants, millions of little animals are 

 found, adapted to their situation. For, as their ground, if 

 I may so express it, lies over their heads, their feet are 

 placed upon their backs ; and, as land animals have their 

 legs below their bodies, these have them above. At land 

 also, most animals are furnished with eyes to see their 

 food ; but at sea, almost all the reptile kinds are without 

 eyes, which might only give them prospects of danger, at 

 a time when unprovided with the means of escaping it. 



Thus, -in all places, we perceive an obvious similitude 

 between the animals and the vegetables of every region. 

 In general, however, the most perfect races have the least 

 similitude to the vegetable productions on which they are 

 ultimately fed ; while, on the contrary, the meaner the an- 

 imal, the more local it is found to be, and the more it is 

 influenced by the varieties of the soil wheie it resides. 

 Many of the njore humble reptile kinds are not only con- 

 fined to one country, but also to a plant ; nay, even to a 

 leaf. Upon that they subsist ; increase with its vegeta- 

 tion, and seem to decay as it declines. They are merelv 

 the circumscribed inhabitants of a single vegetable* ; take 

 them from that, and they instantly die ; being entirely as- 

 similated to the plant they feed on, assuming its coloi, and 

 even its medicinal properties. For this reason, there are 

 infinite numbers of the meaner animals that we have never 



