OF NATURAL HISTORY. 35 



Other bodies by means of little hooks, as the goofe-grafs, and 

 many other kinds. 



All thefe analogies, it may be remarked, are confined to 

 large animals and large vegetables 5 but they hold not inthat 

 numerous tribe of plants called grajps. Inftead of being filled 

 with wood and pith, their flems are perfedlly hollow ; and, 

 to fortify thefe plants, Nature has beflowed on them flrong 

 joints or knots, which are placed at regular diflances in each 

 fpecies. But, though fome of the analogies which fubfifl be- 

 tween the larger animals and vegetables exifl not in the fmal- 

 ler plants, this circumftance, inftead of infringing, confirms 

 the general plan of nature. To difcover the analogies be- 

 tween tubular plants and animals, we muft examine the flruc- 

 ture of the minuter tribes of animated beings. The grafTes 

 have neither pith nor w^ood internally \ and the polypus, the 

 taenia, and many other infe6ls, have no bones, heart, or in- 

 teftines, but are fimple tubes, perfedlly refembling the empty 

 ftems of the gramineous plants. Befides, the ligneous, or at 

 leaft the herbaceous part of thefe plants, is placed on the out- 

 fide, fimilar to the cruftaceous and fliell animals, wdiofe bones 

 are fituated externally. Another analogy mufl not be omit- 

 ted. The fucculent vegetables, fuch as the houfe-leek, the 

 mufhroom tribes, and many fea-plants, confift almoft entirely 

 of a pulpy or parenchymatous fubftance, and may be crufhed 

 to a jelly by the fiighteft prefllire. The texture of worms, 

 caterpillars, and of all the foft infe(Sts, is extremely fimilar to 

 that of the fucculent vegetables. 



II. GROWTH AND NOURISHMENT. 



THE fecond fource of analogies between the plant and an- 

 imal is derived from the modes of their growth and nourifh- 

 ment. 



Many ingenious theories have been invented, with a vievr 

 to explain the myfterious operation by which the growth 



