OF NATURE. 
fcarce any herb can find a fixed habitation 
upon them * as we may obferve every where 
near the fea. But the very minute cruftace- 
ous liverworts begin foon to cover thefe dry 
rocks, although they have no other nourifh- 
ment, but that fmall quantity of mould, and 
imperceptible particles, which the rain and air 
bring thither. Thefe liverworts dying at laft 
turn into a very fine earth ; on this earth the 
x imbricated liverworts find a bed to ftrike 
their roots in. Thefe alfo dye after a time, and 
turn to mould ; and then the various kinds of 
mofies, e. g. the hypna , the hrya , politricha find' 
a proper place, and nourifhment. Laftly thele 
dying in their turn, and rotting afford fuch a 
plenty of new formed mould, that herbs and 
fliruba eafily root, and live upon it. 
That trees when they are dry or are cut 
down may not remain ufelefs to the world, and 
lye, as it were, melancholy fpedlacles, nature 
haftens on their deftru&ion in a fingular way: 
firft the liverworts begin to ftrike root in them 5 
afterwards the moifture is drawn out of them 2 
I have ufed this word* becaufe we have no EngHfh 
one of the fame meaning unlefs it be the word fcaly , that 
i know of. However imbricated means parts lying oves 
parts like tiles, as in the cup of the thifile flower. 
X 
whence 
