SECT. XIII. i. OF VEGETABLE ANIMATION. 107 



pillar in the nut-fhell, the fweet kernel is converted 

 into a bitter powder. While the power of abforp- 

 tion in the roots and barks of vegetables is excited 

 into aftion by the fluids applied to their mouths 

 like the lacteals and lymphatics of animals. 



2. The individuals of the vegetable world may 

 be confidered as inferior or lefs perfect animals ; a 

 tree is a congeries of many living buds, and in this 

 refpect refembles the branches of coralline, which 

 are a congeries of a multitude of animals. Each 

 of thefe buds of a tree has its proper leaves or petals, 

 for lungs, produces its viviparous or its oviparous 

 offspring in buds or feeds ; has its own roots, which 

 extending down the ftem of the tree are interwo- 

 ven with the roots of the other buds, and form the 

 bark, which is the only living part of the item, is 

 annually renewed, and is fuperinduced upon the 

 former bark, which then dies, and with its ftag- 

 nated juices gradually hardening into wood forms 

 the concentric circles, which we fee in blocks of 

 timber. 



The following circumftances evince the indivi- 

 duality of the buds of trees. Firft, there are many 

 trees, whofe whole internal wood is periihed, and 

 yet the branches are vegete and healthy. Secondly, 

 the fibres of the barks of trees are chieffy longitu- 

 dinal, refembling roots, as is beautifully feen in 

 thofe prepared barks, that were lately brought from 

 Otaheita. Thirdly, in horizontal wounds of the 

 bark of trees, the fibres of the upper lip are always 

 elongated downwards like roots, but thofe of the 

 lower lip do not approach to meet them. Fourthly, 

 if you wrap wet mofs round any joint of a vine, or 

 cover it with moift earth, roots will {hoot out from 

 it. Fifthly, by the inoculation or engrafting of 

 trees many fruits are produced from one item. 

 Sixthly, a new tree is produced from a branch 

 plucked from an old one, and fet in the ground. 



I Whence 



