because Water eafily evaporates, and the other Principles with difficulty, they continue engaged in the Pores and Fibres of Plants, and there mix and unite themselves differently according to the particular difpofition of each Plant. 'There evaporates a great deal of Water every Day, efpecially when the Weather is hot ; for from a fhoot of a Vine of a Foot long there daily evaporates above two or three Spoonfuls, which we may be convinced of when Vines congeal in the Month of May; for two hours after Sun rife their Shoots are black and dry, whence it follows, that in two hours the Sun caufes all the Water to evaporate, and that in twelve hours it would diffipate fix times as much; but though it lofes a great deal of this watery Juice, there returns enough to nourish the Plants, and always carry thither a few of the active Principles, till at laft there is enough to cause a hardnefs and folidity in the Branches, and the Juice of the Fruits be proper for the nourishment of Animals; and if moreover there is too much Water after the Fruit is gathered; this furplus. diffipates it felf in a little time, and the Fruit remains in its perfect maturity, though there continues a great deal of Water. Plants that laft but one Year, as fennel, Poppies, &c. grow at laft very hard, and the Pores through which the external Water entered shut themselves up, and the Sun continuing to dry them, there remains a great quantity of the earthy, faline, and oily Parts, perfectly mixed with fome parts of Water there retained and inclofed, and which with great difficulty disengage themfelves from them. The fame thing happens to Grains and Seeds, for at laft they grow fat and oily, because the watery watery Juice which almost entirely evaporates every Day by the heat of the Sun, does not raise up along with it the fmall quantity of fat Matter which it brings thither, and by this means amaffes it till its perfect maturity. The Seeds of fmall Plants, and that which is contained in the Kernels and Pippins of Fruits of the larger fize, ferve not only for the nourishment of Animals, but alfo the reproduction of new Plants; and herein appears vifibly a wonderful Oeconomy and Providence in Nature: For the different Species of Plants have fomething particular in their Grains and Seeds, to make them difperfe in different places that they may raise up the like. Some have downy Tufts on the top of the Grain, as Thiftles and Scorfonera, and when it is ripe the Wind carries it away and fowes it every where, and it falls down upright because the Tuft is higher than the Body of the Seed. Others have Hooks, as Burdock and Agrimony, that sticking to Peoples Cloaths, and the Wool and Hair of Country Animals, they may be carried elsewhere. Alleluia, which is a Species of four Trefoil, grow in the Woods where there is no Wind: Thefe downy Tufts would be of no manner of ufe to its Seeds; neither have they any Hooks, but are contained in Husks, which being ripe, burft afunder by the heat, and by that means throw them off to ten or twelve foot of Circumference. The wild Cucumber does the fame thing, on which account we give it the name of Elaterium. Rampions, which generally grow under Mofs, have a very minute Grain; for if it were large or tufted, it could not pass through the the Mofs to geminate, but it easily paffes through it on account of its Tenuity upon the first Rain. Strawberries fhoot out in long Arms with a Leaf at the end, which, touching the Earth, takes Root. Cardamines, or wild Creffes, do the fame. And Monfieur Marchand fhewed me in the King's Garden a Species of Trefoil which bent down its flower when it began to dry, and pushed it into the Earth, that the Grain might there be formed, and plant it felf by that means. There are besides in Plants other ways of their being fown, and occupying the void Soil, and fome Writers have alfo told us that the Ashes of Plants may serve for Seeds to produce the fame Plants. You will, perhaps, here ask me, Sir, What is that virtue in every Plant which makes them throw out their Leaves according to a certain fize and figure, and which difpofes their Seed in a manner proper to produce other the like Plants? Whence may it proceed? For Example, that all little Shrubs, for the most part, have very sharp Points to defend themselves from Men and Beafts, as the Rofe-tree, the Sloe, Holly, Whitethorn, &c. and that there are but very few great Trees which have any. That Plants, to which too much heat of the Sun is hurtful, have very large Leaves to cover their Fruits; that thofe which creep along the Ground have little Hooks to link themselves together, and the Stones of Fruit that contain the Seed are very hard, the better to conferve it, &c. Some Philofophers call this Virtue or Principle, the vegetative Soul of Plants, or their fubftantial form; but they do not make us one jot the wifer, fince they do not explain what this Soul Soul is, nor whence it proceeds; if it be spread all over the whole Plant, or in fome fmall part only; if it be inherent in the Plant, or not. Some others fay that it is fufficient that there is in the Seed a certain configuration of Particles, and fome particular difpofition of the Pores and Fibres, through which the Sap may be differently filtrated, to produce all the diversities which we obferve therein. There are feveral of them who maintain, that the Seed of every Plant has already in it in little, all the parts which it must afterwards throw out, and that it only unwraps and extends them as it grows, and that it has not only its own, but thofe alfo of all the other it is to produce to the end of the World. But can we believe that one Grain of a Melon, for Example, has in its little Germe, its Leaves, Fruits, the other Grains which will be produced within the Germes of each of thefe Grains, and every thing that these Germes fhall produce ad infinitum? It seems more likely to me that the Grains contain only the principal parts of Plants, and that the others form themfelves fucceffively by the difpofitions which the former give to the Sap. One may plainly fee in the Bulbs of Tulips foon after the Month of January, by the help of a large Convex Glafs, fome of their Parts, as the fix Leaves of the Flower, the Stalk, the Piftil which must hold the Grain, and the small Threads that accompany it; but one cannot fee, even with the best Microfcope, either the Grains or Tulips which fhall be produced from these Grains, or the new Bulbs. What follows is almoft all that I could obferve in this Matter. The Bulb being put into the Earth, throws out at its fide a new Bulb, which in the Month |