OF NATURAL HISTORY. 259 



that, from feeds of the fame individual plants, varieties 

 fometimes appear. If thefe varieties chance to have any 

 quaUties lijperior in value to the original plants, their feeds, 

 flioots, or flips, are collected, and the new kind is propagat- 

 ed with diligence. That the beauty of llowers, and the 

 magnitude and flavour of fruits are improveable by particu- 

 lar modes of culture, and- even by unknown accidents, is an 

 undeniable truth : That thefe improved qualities, in what- 

 ever manner procured, continue in the kind unlefs allowed to 

 degenerate by negligence, is not lefs true. But there is nothing 

 fo wonderful in thefe phenomena as to require the mofl: un- 

 bounded ftretches of fancy to account for them. Are not 

 the beauty, ftrength, and magnitude of animals, equally im- 

 proveable by culture ? Does not an ox, tranfported from 

 the comparatively barren mountains of Scotland, to the rich 

 paftures of Yorkfl:iire, affume qualities very different from 

 thofe he originally poflTefled ? Why, then, Ihould an iiicon- 

 iiderable change in the conflitution of a colev-'ort, or a tur- 

 nip, excite furprife ? Plants are liable to be diverfifled by 

 numberlefs accidents. Perpetually fixed to the fame locat 

 fituation, they muft receive, indifcriminately, fuch nourifli- 

 ment as is transmitted to them by the earth and air. When 

 different kinds happen to grow very near each other, and-, 

 as they have not the choice of rejedling fuch food as is pre* 

 fented to them, may not exudations from the one be abforb* 

 ed by the roots of the other .? May not the matter which 

 tranfpires fo copioufly from the leaves and flowers of one 

 plant be conveyed to, and abforbed by, thofe of a different 

 kind ? And may not this foreign nourifhment occafional- 

 ly introduce fome changes in the colour, texture, or flavour, 

 of the leaves, flowers, or fruit ? Nay, is it not reafonable 

 to fuppofe, that folutions of various mineral fubflances, the 

 a(Slion of particular manures, and a thoufand other circum- 

 ftances, may often induce fuch changes ? Why, then, 

 ihould we have recourfe to unnatural and fl:rained analc- 



