CONCERNING 



SECT. II. 



SECTION II, 



CONCERNING VEGETATION, 



S a good GARDEN affords much pleatfure and prcfit f 

 it deferves every attention ; and certainly the 

 cultivation of it cannot be too rationally purfued. It 

 is therefore that a fketch of the Nature of Vegetation 

 is here attempted ; for the u'fe of thofe who are unac- 

 quainted with the fubjecl to affift them in the purfuit 

 of gardening wkh underftanding. 



Let the elements be firft confidered. 

 Earth, as an element, confidered in itfelf, appears 

 not to ferve to the fupport of man or beaft. Though 

 from it all things fpring as from a common womb , 

 yet independent of the other elements, or extraneous 

 natter, it neither produces, nor affords, any thing like 

 food. A (Tiffed however by thefe, there is a combina- 

 tion of powers, the effects of which are equally bene- 

 ficial and wonderful. 



It has been pretty much an opinion, that the earth 

 a£ts only as a receptacle for nutriment ; and as a reft, 

 ing place, or means of fupporting plants erectly ; to 

 imbibe rain, dews, air, &c. needing continually to be 

 replenifhed by manures, or from the atmofphere. In- 

 deed, it is not to be conceived, how the earth, confi- 

 dered as a folid, fhould pafs through the capillary 

 parts of plants. Experiments have proved, that the 

 earth is very little, if at all exhaufled, by the growth 

 of plants, and confeqnently affords a prefumption that 

 plants are not fed by it. 



r There 



