650 ON VEGETABLE ANALYSIS. 
ARTICLE XIX. 
ON SERPENT'S EGGS. 
The Rev. Michael Russell, L. L. D., under the Zoolological treatise 
of animals, mentioned in Scripture remarks, on the generation of 
serpents, " the only difference hetvveen the oviparous and viviparous 
is, that in the former the eggs are laid before the foetus is mature in 
the latter, the foetus bursts the egg while yet in the womb of the mo- 
ther." There has been doubts whether the adder be oviparous or 
viviparous, — certain it is, that the eggs lay as above described, and I 
should have no difficulty in procuring you a female adder to send 
you, if you wish to satisfy yourselves by dissecting it. 
A. M. 
ARTICLE XX. 
ON VEGETABLE ANALYSIS. 
BY MR. A. GODWIN. 
The economy of animal and vegetable existence is obviously similar, 
and even in matters not very obvious ; a thermometer, put in an 
augur hole in a tree, will shew that the plant in winter is warmer by 
many degrees than the atmosphere ; — the tree can resist cold, by its 
moisture not freezing so soon as the water in its neighbourhood. — 
Plants shut up their leaves, and sleep in the night, betray irritability 
and sensibility. — A wounded tree on a frosty day, when the sun 
shines, will bleed profusely on its south side, but shew no signs of 
sap on the north, &c. &c. A rainy season opposes the developement 
of the saccharine principle, as well as the formation of resins and aro- 
matics. A dry season is unfriendly to mucilage, but otherwise to 
resins and aromatics. Cold weather is inimical to all these, except 
mucilage, which is the principle of increase in the bulk of plants ; 
hence trees in cold climates are most agreeable in their appearance. 
A. Godwin. 
