LOOKING-GLASS. 
203 
about a foot in eight years. The additional height 
is a regular cylinder, and not fo thick as from the 
contrafted part down to the root, becaufe its vege- 
tation was not fo much forced in a temperate 
climate as in the native foil where it firft grew, 
under the torrid zone. 
But fimilar effects cannot poffibly proceed from 
the fame caufes in trees differently defcribed, which 
grow up with uniform ftalks dire£fed to one central 
point ; fo that, however they may vegetate in dif- 
ferent countries, the trunk will preferve its pri- 
mitive form : yet, notwithftanding this affinity be- 
tween them all, in fome refpe£ts, if we confider at- 
tentively the fcattered colonies tranfplanted all over 
the globe, the refult of our refle^fions will be a 
conviftion, — that thefe living, creatures (plants) have, 
like others, an original race, from which they are 
defcended, and a mother-country, beft fuited to 
their refpefUve conftitutions. 
This truth muff appear in a ftronger light, from 
a comparative review of fhch as are called branches 
of the natural families of plants. 
Muflirooms, and their relatives, grow regularly 
upon one fcallion, with a ftalk terminating in a 
chapiter, or like the top of a pillar. They are all 
of a fpungy fubftance, porous, cracked, and m 
pointed blades, growing on putrified wood. 
Mofs confifts of feveral fmall leaves, growing fe- 
parately upon one ftem, and blooming in winter. 
4 Inftead 
