3 io Of Mofs , &c. 
cafe turns downwards. On opening feveral of thefe dry 
red cafes F, they were found to be quite hollow ; where¬ 
as when they were cut afunder with a fliarp penknife 
when green, in the middle of this great cafe was found 
another fmall round cafe, the interfaces between the two 
cafes being filled with multitudes of ftringy fibres which 
feemed to fufpend the lefler cafe in the middle of the 
Other, in which without doubt the feeds were contained; 
it grows on the rotten parts of ftone, bricks, wood, 
bones, leather, &c. 
This fir. all vegetable is wanting in nothing of the 
perfections of the moft confpicuous vegetables of the 
world, and deferves to be ranged in as high a ftate; 
for we do not know but that all the contrivances and 
mechanifm requifite to a perfect vegetable, are crowded 
into exceedingly lefs room than this of mofs; for that 
plant already defcribed, which grows on rofe-leaves, is 
fo exceeding fmall that near a thoufand of them would 
hardly make the bignefs of one fingle plant of mofs ; and 
by comparing the bulk of the latter to that of the biggeft 
vegetable (fome trees being, as we are informed, near 
twenty foot in diameter in Guinea and Brazil) whereas 
the body or ftem of mofs is generally not above one 
fixtieth part of an inch, we fhall find that the bulk 
of one will exceed that of the other, no lefs than 
2985,984,000,000; and fuppofing the production of the 
rofe-leaf to be a plant, thofe Indian plants will exceed it a 
thoufand times the former number, fo prodigioufly various 
are the works of the Creator, and fo all-fufficient is he 
in his performance of things which to man would feem 
impoffible. 
Of 
