APPENDIX C. 143 



" My Lord Bacon directs to the observation 

 of the rainbow, where its extremity seems to 

 rest, as pointing to a more roscid and fertile 

 mould ; but this, I conceive, may be very falla- 

 cious, it having two horns, or bases, which are 

 ever opposite." 



Among such strange ideas, which, however, 

 bear but a very trifling proportion to the bulk 

 of practical information which was probably new 

 and valuable to the agriculturist of those days, 

 there is the dawning of a true knowledge of 

 Vegetable Physiology. The indispensable im- 

 portance of water, the probable influence of the 

 atmosphere, both on the plants themselves, and 

 on the soil, the strong suspicion at least, " that 

 plants do more than obscurely respire, and ex- 

 ercise a kind of peristaltic motion," are among 

 the indications of an approach to truth, and 

 when we remember that about this time Grew 

 was employed on the " Anatomy of Plants," we 

 may fairly trace back to these days the begin- 

 ning of the Science, properly so called, which is 

 the subject of this little book ; nor can better 

 words be found with which to conclude it, than 

 those of Evelyn, speaking of the " Groves and 

 Woods," " But I cease to expatiate farther on 

 these wonders, that I may not anticipate the 

 pleasures with which the serious contemplator 

 on those stupendous works of Nature (or rather 



