SS THE PHILOSOPHT 



air, and other fine fluids, which are concealed and aflimilated 

 in the veflels of the feminal root, and then conveyed, in a kind 

 of vegetable form, to the feeble veiTels of the plume. Hence 

 it is apparent, that the nouriiliment of young animals by 

 milk, and of young vegetables by feminal leaves, is the fame 

 inftitution of nature, and effected by fimiiar inftruments. 



Plants, like animals, pafs gradually from an embryo, or in- 

 fant flate, to that of puberty. At this period of their exift- 

 ence, they have acquired that firmnefs of texture, and that 

 evolution of parts, which conftitute the perfection of their 

 natures, and enable them to produce beings every way fiir ilar 

 to themfelves. In both kingdoms, the age of puberty arrives 

 later or more early, according to the difference of fpecies. 

 Some animals live a few months only. Many of the infeft 

 tribes are produced, grow to maturity, propagate their kind, 

 and die in the courfe of a fingle feafon. Others, as feveral 

 flies, beetles, &c. exiil; two years. Thus animals have a pro- 

 grefiive duration of iife. The dormoufe lives fix years^ the 

 hare feven or eight, the bear tv»?enty or twenty live, the cam^ 

 el forty or fifty, the rhinoceros feventy or eighty, the ele- 

 phant two hundred ; and fome birds and fiflies are fuppofed 

 to exifl during three or four centuries. The fame progreflive 

 duration takes place among vegetables. Some plants are an- 

 nual, as mofl of the efculent kinds ; others, as the hedge- 

 parfley, the wild carrot, the parfnip, the fox-glove, the fcurvy 

 grafs, &c. are biennial ; others exift three, five, feven, ten, 

 twenty, thirty, fixty, and a hundred years ; and the oak, like 

 the elephant and thofe birds and fiflies which are famed for 

 longevity, continues to adorn the forell: for feveral centuries. 



The manner by vdiich the nutritious particles are extract- 

 ed from food, is very fimiiar in the animal and the plant. In 

 the animal, this operation is performed by the lacteal veffels, 

 which are diftributed over the internal furface of the ftomach 

 and inteflines. In the plant, the fame ofHce is performed by 



