OF NATURAL HISTORY. 27 



the feminal leaves. Thefe leaves abforb dews, air, and other fine 

 fluids, which are concodted and aflimilated in the veflels of the fe- 

 minaJ root, and then conveyed, in a kind of vegetable form, to the 

 feeble veflels of the plume. Hence it is apparent, that the nourifh- 

 ing of young aniriials by milk, and of young vegetables by feminal 

 leaves, is the fame inflitution of Nature, and eflfeded by fimilar in- 

 ftruments. 



Plants, like animals, pafs gradually from an embryo, or Infant 

 ftate, to that of puberty. At this period of their exiftence, they 

 have acquired that firmnefs of texture, and that evolution of parts, 

 which conftitute the perfeftion of their natures, and enable them to 

 produce beings every way fimilar to themfelves. In both king- 

 doms, the age of puberty arrives later or more early, according to 

 the difference of fpecies. Some animals live a few months on- 

 ly. 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. exift: two years. Thus 

 animals have a progreflive duration of life. The dormoufe lives 

 fix years, the hare feven or eight, the bear twenty or twenty- 

 five, the camel forty or fifty, the rhinoceros feventy or eighty, 

 the elephant two hundred ; and fome birds and fifhes are fup- 

 pofed to exifl; during three or four centuries. The fame pro- 

 greflive duration takes place among vegetables. Some plants are 

 annual, 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, fix- 

 ty, and a hundred years ; and the oak, like the elephant and thofe 

 birds and fiflies which are famed for longevity, continues to adorn 

 the forefl; for feveral centuries. 



D 2 The 



