64 
ON THE MANAGEMENT 
The fun is the primary caufe, the very life and foul of vege- 
tation ; and by a certain kind of natural magnetifm, plants, 
in general, have almoft as great a propenlity to tend to that 
glorious luminary, as all the various bodies furrounding the 
earth have, by their gravity, a tendency to its centre. 
In the fpring, after a dark feafon, when the fun chances to 
break forth in a ferene evening, it is pleafing to obferve fmall 
feedling plants, of all kinds, bending with their little faces to- 
wards the fun, as if draining and defirous to partake, as much 
as poffible, of his divine influence. 
From hence it is not diflicult to conceive the reafon why, 
on this flde of the equator, our plants in general, I fpeak of thofe 
in the open air, Ihould have a certain inclination to the South, 
and even fo as to render their forms (particularly trees) crooked. 
But it mufl; be confidered, that in the fummer, when vegeta- 
tion is in its full career, the fun’s rays fall daily almofl: on every 
fide of plants. Befldes the above caufe, plants growing in the 
open air are alfo greatly agitated by the wind, which, by its 
variablenefs, conftantly moves them to and from every fide ; 
t 
and it is from thefe two caufes in conjundtion, that plants 
grow eredl and branch out, as we fee they do almofl: equally 
on every fide. 
But now plants in the Hot-houfe have a far greater propenfity 
to incline to the South, than plants growing in an expolure, 
becaufe 
