The vegetable S Y S E M. ' 
8 • 
To prove that it is the ftatc of the Plant refpedtive to its evapo-’ 
ration vvliich occafions this, we may add to the lift the common 
Sun-dew w'hole exhaafted Fluid is received again, not loft : for this 
Plant is common alfo in the Indies. 
CHAP. V. 
Of the Effects of Seasons upon Vegetation. 
T H E power of the Elements on vegetable Bodies being afcer- 
tained, vve may rationally enquire into the changes brought 
on by various Seafons. Summer and Winter, Spring and Autumn 
differ no otherwife from one another than in the proportions of heat 
and cold, moifture and drynefs. All their diftindtions reft upon the 
various degrees of fire, and water, and the effedts thefe take upon 
the two other Elements, earth and air : and all the changes they 
produce in Plants, in the fiime manner depend upon the variations- 
in thofe Elements. While too much was attributed to heat, and 
confequently too little to all the reft, thefe enquiries could not be 
profecuted with any degree of certainty : but when the whole is 
placed before the eye together, and the Elements are confidered, 
not only fimpry, but in their feveral combinations, perhaps this 
fubjedl will be better underftood. 
Winter adls only on Plants by the diminution of heat. We 
have leen what are the eftedts of this principle in its more perfedt 
llagcs and degrees; and we may therefore eafily underftand how 
that Seafon produces changes in Plants by its deprivation. It is 
heat that raifes the juices of Vegetables ; and they in their afeent 
forming them own veffels, as- has been fiievvn in the preceeding vo- 
lume, the plant rifes above the ground. As heat caufes this, the 
Vegetables of equal natural ftrength will be talieft wliere there is 
moll heat, all other things being equal. This we fee in fadl, for 
the loftieft trees grow in the hotteft climates. Therefore when the 
degree of heat which raifed our humble Plants to their proper 
height ceafes at the clofe of Summer, the body cannot be fupport- 
