^ 1 8 Of egetation. 
-not imbibe fo ftrongly from the air, as 
others do, that great bleffing the dew of 
Heaven. 
And as the mod racy generous taftes of 
fruits, and the grateful odours of flowers, 
do not improbably arife from thefe refined 
aereal principles, fo may the beautiful co- 
lours of flowers be owing in a good mea- 
fure to the fame original 5 for it is a known 
obfervation, that a dry foil contributes much 
more to their variegation than a ftrong moift 
one does. 
And may not light alfo, by freely entring 
the expanded furfaces of leaves and flowers^ 
contribute much to the ennobling the prin- 
ciples of vegetables ) for Sir Ifaac Newton 
puts it as a very probable query, “ Are 
cc not grofs bodies and light convertible into 
€e one another ? and may not bodies receive 
f c much of their a&ivity from the particles 
u ~. of light, which enter their comp'ofition) 
u . The change of bodies into light, and of 
m light into bodies, is very conformable to 
** the courfe of nature, which feerns de- 
't lighted with ttaiifmutationso Ofi.q.i 
