TORNEA. 139 



The meadows hereabouts, amonjr the 

 thickets towards the shore of the bay, af- 

 forded me the following plants. 



1. Veronica {maritima), with an erect 

 stem, branched in the upper part, and 



sediment of the water any thing more than a common 

 innocent ochre of iron. 



** I had scarcely landed from the boat in which I was 

 taken to this meadow, than the Cicufa presented it- 

 self before me, and explained the cause of all this 

 destruction. It is most abundant in the meadow 

 where the cattle are first seized with the distemper, 

 especially near the shore. The slightest observation 

 teaches us that brute animals distinguish, bv natural 

 instinct, such plants as are wholesome to them, from 

 euch as are poisonous. The cattle therefore do not 

 eat this Hemlock in summer or autumn ; whence 

 few of them perish at those seasons, and such only as 

 devour the herb in question incautiously, or from an 

 inordinate appetite. But when they are first turned 

 out in the spring, partly from their eagerness for fresh 

 herbage, partly from their long fasting and starvation, 

 they seize with avidity whatever conies within their 

 reach. The herbage is then but short, and insufficient 

 to satisfy them ; probably also it is in general more 

 succulent, immersed under water, and scarcely per- 

 ceptibly scented ; so that they are unable to distinguish 

 the Vvholesoine from the pernicious kinds. I remarked 



