i83 
VEGETABLE STRUCTURE. 
6. The Palms have a hmple Trunk, v/ith Leaves only on the Top, 
and have tiie Flowers and Fruit in divided Ears. 
7. The common Race of Plants are fuch as thofe we have deferibed 
in the preceding Chapters, which have their Roots, Leaves, Stalks, Flowers, 
and Fruits diftindt and obvious j and have not the Charadters of any of the 
lix other Families. Thefe Plants of the common kind have been the I'ub- 
jedls ot the preceding part of this work ; it remains that we here enter up- 
on tl:e Charadters and diftindfions of the other fix : and as the order 
wherein thefe are placed tends to lead us from the mofl: fimple of all gra- 
dually to the more complex, it will be mofi proper to feledt from that 
fimpleli Clafs the AiUshrooms, the kind which is moft fimple of all, 
the Truffle. The Confirudlion of this Plant has not yet been well 
underftood : and the Reader will, perhaps, be furprized to hear, that, plain 
and ' rude as it appears, it has all the efiential parts of the moll; perfedt 
Plants. This will appear upon ajult enquiry; and no inftance can more 
flron'-ly piove the general law wherewith we opened the way to thefe 
enquiries, that there is a certain Rrudlure, peculiar to Vegetables, which 
ConlVitutes them what they arc, and gives them a right to the place they 
hold among the ranks of Beings; and that this is found in all Vegetables, 
thofe which are called the moll imperfcdl not excepted. 
C H A P. XLIL 
Of the T R U F F L E. 
^T^HE Truffle, having no fpecious parts, no Leaves, no Flowers, has^ 
been cf old fuppoled to want alfo Seeds ; and, with the Worms of 
putrefying fubllances, was long attributed to the equivocal Generation. 
Yet very early there were fome thought otherwile ; and later obfervations 
have gone farther toward afeertaining its Hillory. 
The Truffle has evident Seeds; but they are ccn'ained within Its 
fubfiance, under the Rind, and in the abfolnte Flelli. This is not lingu- 
lar to the Truffle ; it has always been referred to the Muflaroom Clafs, and 
many, perhaps all the genuine Mulhiooms, have the Seeds covered. They 
aie minute, and they requite defence : they have, indeed, more occafion 
for it than merely from their fmallnefs. The young Plant is, in a manner, 
formed within them, by that time they have their bignefs: and it vvould 
pciilh if not well defended till their flight furface were tolerably hardened. 
I It 
