8 



SYLVA BRTTANNICA. 



lately a single ant could easily have borne to his 

 little cavern, should now become capable of resist- 

 ing the fury, and braving the rage of the most im- 

 petuous storms, — mag7ii meherch artificis, clausisse 

 totum in tarn eariguo, et horror est consider anii. 



" For their preservation Nature has invested the 

 w^hole tribe and nation, as we may say, of vege- 

 tables, with garments suitable to their naked and 

 exposed bodies, temper, and climate. Thus some are 

 clad with a coarser skin, and resist all extremes of 

 weather ; others with more tender and delicate skins 

 and scarfs, as it were, and thinner raiment. Quid 

 foUorum describam diversitates? What shall we say 

 of the mysterious forms, variety, and variegation of 

 the leaves and flowers, contrived with such art, yet 

 without art ; some round, others long, oval, multan- 

 gular, indented, crisped, rough, smooth and polished, 

 soft and flexible ; quivering at every tremulous blast, 

 as if it would drop in a moment, and yet so obsti- 

 nately adhering, as to be able to contest against the 

 fiercest winds that prostrate mighty structures! 

 There it abides till God bids it fall : for so the wise 

 Disposer of things has placed it, not only for orna- 

 ment, but use and protection both of body and fruit, 

 from the excessive heat of summer, and colds of the 

 sharpest winters, and their immediate impressions ; 

 as we find it in all such places and trees, as, like 

 the blessed and good man, have always fruit upon 

 them ripe, ox preparing to mature. 



