Chap. II. Of Food of Plants. i i 



has ; for if thofe be rightly adj lifted, any Soil will 

 nourifh any Sort of Plant ; for let Thyme and Rupes 

 change Places, and both will die •, but let them change 

 their Soil, by removing the Earth wherein the Thynft 

 grew, from the dry Hill down into the watry Bottom, 

 and plant Rufoes therein; and carry the moift Earth, 

 wherein the Rujhes grew, up to the Hill ; and there 

 Thyme will grow in the Earth that was taken from the 

 Rujhes ; and fo will the Rujhes grow in the Earth that 

 was taken from the Thyme -, fo that 'tis only more or 

 lefs Water that makes the fame Earth fit either for the 

 Growth of Thyme or Rujhes, 



So for Heat •, our Earth, when it has in the Stove 

 the juft Degree of Heat that each Sort of Plants re- 

 quires, will maintain Plants brought from both the 

 Indies. 



Plants differ as much from one another in the De- 

 grees of Heat and Moifture they require, as a Fiih 

 differs from a Salamander. 



Indeed Mijletoe^ and fome other Plants, will not 

 live upon Earth, until it be firft alter'd by the VefTels 

 of another Plant or Tree, upon which they grow, 

 and therein are as nice in Food as an Animal. 



There is no need to have Recourfe to Tranfmuta* 

 tation -, for whether Air or Water, or both, are trans- 

 fer m'd into Earth or not, the thing is the fame, if it 

 be Earth when the Roots take it -, and we are con- 

 vinced that neither Air nor Water alone, as fuch, will 

 maintain Plants. 



Thefe kind of Metamorphofes may properly enough 

 be confider'd in DifTertations purely concerning Mat- 

 ter, and to difcover what the component Particles of 

 Earth are ; but not at all neceffary to be known, in 

 relation to the maintaining of Vegetables. 



g "lourifhing different Species of Vegetables, not of the Quantity 

 of it ; which Quantity may be alter'd by Diminution or Super- 

 kdaftion. 



c 3 c h x P. 



