The seven VEGETABLE FAMILIES. 
213 
even the common Liuruftine loft the Bliifh which adorns its Flower, en- 
tirely, under the iinperfedl Shadow of the Elrn Walk to the Water; while 
fifter Shrubs of it, at a few yards diftance, had the fame Colour as thofe 
in the reft of the Garden. 
The Plants which grow in Caverns, and in Wells, tho’ full of Vege- 
table Life, have very fimple Forms ; and fcarce any thing of Colour be- 
yond Green. They are all of one or other of the Four lefier Families, 
Fungus’s, Alg/e, Mosses, or Ferns, vvhofe unconfpicuous Flowers con- 
fefs the Obfeurity wherein they were formed : nor have they any ftrength 
of Tafte or Colour, On the contrary, the moft fpecious Plants, the Rofe- 
Hibifeus, and the Gloriofa, with their fellows, are children of the briglit 
Sun of the Indies. 
All Plants are animated, as it were, by Light: they have motions in 
their Leaves, and other parts, which they inuft perform, or perifti : on 
thefe motions depend the courfes of their Juices, and thefe are the effed; 
alone of Light. Thofe which are leaft animated efcape common obkr- 
vation ; but they have motions as certain, tho’ lefs obvious ; and thofe 
which have the influence moft fully, mimick the Animal Nature. It is 
hence the Senfitive Plants ftirink at the Touch : for in the Dark they ftirink 
yet farther: nor can any thing but Light raife them to the condition of 
this feeming Senfibility. 
The Growth of Plants, at leaft their regular Growth, as well as their 
abfolute Life, depend net only on Warmth and Moifture, but on Light : 
this moves their Juices, and upon this motion greatly depends their En- 
creafe. If tender Plants be kept in conftant Darknefs, they lofe their 
L, eaves, and die. Thus Mr. Lee, of Hammerfmith, at my defire, mak- 
ing the Experiment moft fairly, killed two Tamarind Trees, and an Ab- 
rus ; and would have killed an Erythrina, but that he gave it Light in 
time, and recovered it. Light keeps the Juices of the Plant in motion ; 
and this preferves the whole. When it is not admitted thefe ftagnate, and 
they fermer.t foon after ; then the part falls off, and the Plan‘, wanting its 
ncceffary Organs, perifhes. 
As our Light, which is interrupted by the Night, ralfes our Plants to 
Flower in a certain longer courfe of Time ; thofe which enjoy the ftiort 
Lapland Summer, rife from the Root to full Bloom in a Fortnight : this is 
the effed; of perpetual Light, the Sun, for that time, then never feting. 
For the fame rcafon it appears, that the Plants at the bottom of the Sea 
are, in all Climates, as deftitute of fpecious Flowers as ours in Wells : and 
while that univerfal glow is feen upon the Aflatick Shrubs and commCn 
P:an:s. 
