104 ^^ Wisdom of GOD Parti. 



too much parch and dry them, if they lay open 

 and expos'd to its Beams without any Shelter : 

 The Leaves, I lay, qualify and contemper the 

 Heat, aiidferve aifo to hinder- the too hafty Eva- 

 poration of the Moifture about the Root : But 

 the principal Ufe of the Leaves (as we learn of 

 Signior Malpbigii^ Monfieur Perault^ and Mon-. 

 fieur Mariotte) is to con cod: and prepare the Sap 

 for the INouriihment of the Fruit, and the whole 

 Plants not only that which afcends from the 

 Root, but what they take in from without, from 

 the Dew, moift Air and Rain. This they prove, 

 becaufe many Trees, if defpoil'd of their Leaves, 

 will die ; as it happens fometimes in Mulberry- 

 Trees^ when they are pluck'd off to feed Silk- 

 *worms. And becaufe if in Summer-Time you 

 denude a Vine-Branch of its Leaves, the Grapes 

 will never come to Maturity : But tho' you ex- 

 pofe the Grapes to the Sun-Beams, if you pluck 

 not off the Leaves, they will ripen notwithiland- 

 ing. That there is a Regrefs of the Sap in Plants, 

 from above downwards, and that this defcen- 

 dent Juice is that which principally nouri{heth 

 both Fruit and Plant, is clearly prov'd by the 

 Experiments of Signior Malp^higii^ and thofe 



late ones of an Ingenious Country- 

 * Phnofop. Man of our own, ^ "Thomas Brother^ 

 Num.\87. '^^^^ Efquire, of which I (hall mention 



only one, that is, If you cut off a 

 Ring of Bark from the Trunk of any Tree, that 

 Part of the Tree above the Barked Ring fhall 

 grow and increafe in Bignefs, but not that be- 

 neath. 



But 



