OF NATURAL HISTORY. 37 



turn /aliens of the egg, and are diftributed over the yoke. It Is by 

 the pulp of the lobes that the radicle and plume are nourifhed, till 

 the one flioots down into the foil, and the other mounts above the 

 furface. In feedsj there is nothing analogous to the white of an 

 egg. Such a provifion would have been fuperfluous; for the earth, 

 in which the feeds are to germinate, muft always be moift, otherwife 

 the young plant could not receive nourifliment, after ifluing from 

 the feed. Befides, the eggs of filhes have no white, becaule they 

 are perpetually moiftened with water. 



The analogies arifing from the multiplication of animals and 

 plants, by means of eggs and feeds, are the mofl: common, and the 

 mofl: obvious. Eggs and feeds are evidently organs formed on the 

 fame plan, and deftined by Nature to anfwer the fame general in- 

 tention : But the multiplication of plants, as well as that of ani- 

 mals, is not confined folcly to one mode. 



The young of viviparous animals, though they probably origi- 

 nate from fmall eggs, are not brought forth till they have acquired 

 a certain age and firmnefs of texture. It may be thought, that 

 there is no multiplication of plants which has any refemblance to 

 that of viviparous animals. We fhould refledt, however, that plants 

 can multiply by buds. Now, a bud has no analogy, either in tex- 

 ture or appearance, to a feed. Buds arife from the ftems or 

 branches of vegetables. One objedt in their formation is to pro- 

 duce leaves and branches, as well as to extend the length of the 

 trunk or ftem. But they are likewife endowed with the. faculty of 

 reproducing new individuals. In this refped, trees and fhrubs may 

 be confidered as viviparous plants ; becaufe they produce out of 

 their own bodies an organ, which, though differing in every view 

 from a feed, is brought forth alive, and, when properly cherifhed, 

 is converted into a being perfedtly fimilar to the parent, and capable 



of 



