port of thefe plants than for thofe which appear to the day i 
fince Nature carries-oa her Mineral generations with a ftronger 
effort than other: Wherefore Field-plants hold a communion 
with the fleams and moifture of the earth byperfpiration on!y,as 
' they breath through the roots, which have no open paffage for 
them* Nor can it be faid but thofe Stone-planes have true life 
and growth 5 for fince in the curiofity of their make they may 
contend with the greareft part of the Vegetable kingdom, ha- 
ving parts toaffjmilate nouriUment by attraftion, retention,con* 
coition andexpulfionj know not why theyiiiay nocbeallow'd 
as proper a vegetation as any plant whacfoever* And indeed 
what has been faid hitherto againftthe vegetation of Stones^to 
prove chat they receive their increafconly by juxta foJiti0^,hR$ 
been chiefly meant of Common ftones, which have no parts that 
carry any analogy with plants ; whereas thefe are fbap'd like 
themjhaving inward pith or fap, and Jike wife joy nts, andrun- 
iiings in their grit, and fometimes cells , which may very well 
fupplythe place of veins and fibres* Nor does that argument, 
which is brought in the tranfait. N. 99. againft the vegetation 
of Coral feem to convince us: For though that Perfoncan 
produce a Salt of CoraI,which after diflblution will upon coa- 
gulation uiooc into a little grove of Plants,as it were,refembling 
the growrhofCoral, this cannot difprove its Vegetation $ for, 
it's well known, that all Plants may be fo prepared, that from 
theiraflies they will rife again in their proper fpecies after fuch 
a manner. 
As to that opinion which generally folves thofe various 
Phenomena of the feveral figured Stones,which we find in Mines 
and elfewhere, by faying that they are parts of Plants and Ani- 
ma!s,or whole ones, petrified 5 it feems not to be grounded on 
praflica! knowledge : Thus when we find feveral forts oi Shell- 
^/b'ln Mines, as there are feme in the clay where thofe Stone- 
pants grow, we muft not flie to petrifaftion, as though they had 
been brought there by the Sea, or otherwife, and fo petrified 5 
,but we muft take that to be (as it is truly) the natural place of 
their birth 5 fome of them being raw-clay, others of the 
fame texture with the Rock where they grow, and others of as 
abfolute a flielly fubftance as any in the Sea 5 thefe being only 
different gradations of Nature, whichcanas well produce fliells 
in Mines as in the Sea^there being no want of Saline nor Earth- 
<D 2 iv 
