CHAP. III. 

 OF EARTHS. 



WHETHER Earth or Water contribute mofl to the growth 

 of vegetables, has been a qucftion much debated by phy- 

 fiologifts. Antient fages have fancied water to be the mother to 

 earth itfelf. Thofe great moderns, Mr. Boyle and the Lord Bacon, 

 have taken not a little pains to elucidate her maternal right ; but 

 the learned Dr. Woodward has, by feveral curious experiments, 

 evinced, That water has no claim to a priority in natural pro- 

 ductions ; that they are rather coadjutors ; that in all water there 

 is a terreftrial matter fit for vegetation, in lefler or greater pro- 

 portions *. Some plants are more vigorous, and their flowers 

 more vivid and glowing, and fome trees of a bolder ftem, and 

 of a more gloffy and luxuriant leaf, which have but a little 

 earth and moifture ; others require a greater ftore of both ; and 

 we fee a variety of different forts, both annual and perennial, 

 the root, foliage, and the flowers, receiving their growth and 

 beauty from the pabulum they find in the fame fpot of ground, 

 and from the ambient air and dews ; but by the mofl vigilant 

 attention we cannot diftinguifii the terrene falts and juices clofely 

 approaching their feveral roots. If we take away the earth 

 from about them, and put in frefll, we fee them thrive with 

 great luxuriancy and beauty, though of a different genus, and 

 containing different falts in their cornpofition. It is therefore 

 with great probability imagined, that the contextures of their 



* Thoughts and Experiments on Vegetation, by Dr, Woodward, Ph. Tr. No. 253. 



2 lovely 



