16 Poe sVhGE TABLE 8:¥ $ TEM. 
fhative there; for the Seeds of many common Pafture Plants, may have gone from hence 
with Grafs Seed, which our Planters often have from us; but the finding the Plant there, 
and the feeing by what a natural and eafy courfe it may have come thither, from the more 
Northern Countries, not from Europe, together, amount to as good proof as reafon can 
expect in fuch a cafe. 
Ir it be afked, why, on the fame principle, many more Plants are not alfo found native . 
in North America and Europe? the anfwer is eafy. ‘This is not the only one; but many 
are not to be éxpetted on this plan. The extreme North does not produce a very great 
number ; and of thefe, few have the advantages of light Seeds and natural hardinefs, that 
we find in Moufe-Ear. | | : 
_ Anoruer obfervation will naturally occur here to the Reader; that the northern 
Plants are, fo far as hitherto named, extremely fhort or low: it is fo univerfally, fo far as 
I have feen: and height in Vegetables feems certainly, though not univerfally, to en- 
creafe with the Sun’s power. ‘The Mofles of 83 degrees Latitude, are the loweft of all 
Plants; the Strawberries of eighty-two lie on the ground, yet are a little higher than 
thofe Moffes ; the Violet of Baffins Bay is fomewhat taller than the Strawberry ; and the | 
Moufe-Ear of feventy-three, is, to all thefe, gigantick. 
Ir would be vain and abfurd, to fuppofe that all Plants followed this law of encreafe 
exactly, for then the difference of foils and accidents could be allowed no power; and 
the Plants of every country would be all of one heighth: yet I muft be permitted to fay 
here, what will be proved in its due place by a great number of inftances ; that notwith- 
ftanding the multitude of exceptions, there is fuch a law; and that were all accidents 
equal, which they never are, or can be, the effe¢ts would be more vifible. The Moufe- 
Ear, which is ina manner univerfal in feventy-three, grows to three inches high; the 
Jerufalem Artichoak, which is native of 3 degrees, grows to 12 feet. We may trace in 
thefe extreme inftances, the outlines of a proportional advance in growth, as in climate. 
The Jerufalem Artichoak is 70 degrees more South; and it is feventy times as tall. The 
Hollyhock of Borneo, has the fame heighth of twelve feet ; and Moufe-Ear its original 
three inches at the fame diftance North in Afia, as America. 
Turse are the Extreams, fo far as I have found; he that would fill up the intermediate 
degrees, muft find the Plants on which the climate aéts with leaft interruption; and he 
muit meafure thefe in places where they have their genuine ftature. Nightihade upon the 
Downs, is three inches in height; upon a Dunghill, it is a yard or more; but neither 
of thefe is the true, that is, the natural height of the Plant. 
TueEre will be an opportunity, in the courfe of this work, to examine thefe differences 
of the fame Plant, and their caufes: the principles of that enquiry are laid down in a 
preceding volume; only let the general idea of them have fo much weight here, as to 
fhew that a rule may be juft, though liable to a million of exceptions. 
| TuatT difference in the ftature of a Plant, which we fee can arife in the fame place, 
from any one of many accidents, we muft not be aftonithed to find take place in very 
remote countries ; nor muft we bring this different height, when there is no other, as a 
reafon to fuppotfe two Plants not the fame, which are the produ of countries, {uppofed 
not tohave any incommon. The XantTuium, which is our prefent immediate fub- 
ject, is one of Nature’s univerfal Plants; more fo indeed, than any of thofe which take 
their little circles round the Pole. Befide being found throughout Europe and Afia, 
Africa affords it ; and what is more to our immediate purpofe here, America. 
eee 4 Nor 
