OF NATURE. 77 
times prepared a place for them, Hence 
always more fpecies of plants appear in thofe 
places where this caterpillar has laid wafte 
the paftures the preceding year, than at any 
other time. 
§. 10. 
Definition. 
Daily experience teaches us, that all plants 
as well as all other living things, muft fubmit 
to death. 
They fpring up, they grow, they florifti, 
they ripen their fruit, they wither, and at laft, 
having finifned their courfe, they die, and re- 
turn to the dull again, from whence they firft 
took their rife. Thus all black mould, which 
every where covers the earth, for the greateft 
part is owing to dead vegetables . For all roots 
defcend into the fand by their branches, and 
after a plant has loft its Item the root remains ; 
but this too rots at laft, and changes into 
mould. By this means this kind of earth is 
mixed with fand, by the contrivance of na- 
ture, nearly in the fame way as dung thrown 
upon fields is wrought into the earth by the 
induftry of the hufbandman. The earth thus 
pre~ 
