[ ^47 ] 



wife have imbibed from all gentle fummcr 

 rains and dews 3 Vv^hich their outward pores 

 would have been capable of receiving had 

 they ftood thin. Much lefs can their roots 

 have any benefit of the greateft fummer 

 rains; as what on fuch fingular occafions, 

 j the upper parts of the trees do not' drink 

 up, the long coarfe grafs thereunder, v/ill 

 1 ——And what a great account, is, further to 

 be made of ; their bodies in the mean while 

 ' are debarred of a greater exteniion, from 

 the rarefadion of the air within them, and 

 the fermentation of their fap proceeding from 

 folar heat ; and confequently have every 

 way elTentially fufifered in the grcipjhtg pe- 

 riod of their Being ; and that, both above 

 and under ground ; whofe periods of exiit- 

 ence by a univerfal confent of naturalifts, 

 have been eftimated to amount to near 

 three pretty near equal ftages : One grow- 

 ing, one ftanding ftill, or next to flil!, and 

 another thoroughly decaying : Whereto I 

 fhall only urge the opinion of one great Fir- 

 tuofo ; and that is ^intmye ^ who in his 

 treatife of agriculture thus lays, " Every 

 plant has a determinate, certain and in- 

 " fallible ftint, or term for it's beginning 

 and duration"~-Let this argument bQ 

 L % ta,ken 



