them from external injuries. Here they continue in this torpid state till the returning sun calls them to new life; they now expand new wings, and become butterflies, which seem scarce employed in any other manner than that of reproducing their kinds. Thus we see among insects those different offices of eating, sleeping, and generation, make different seasons in their lives. Were we to compare them with other animals we should find, that while those pursue such pleasures by frequent returns, these experience each but once in their lives, and die.

There are some insects, however, which lay up provisions for the winter, of which the bee and the foreign ant are remarkable instances. The wasp, the hornet, and the wild bee are not less assiduous in laying in a proper stock of food, and fitting up commodious apartments; but this is wholly for the sake of their young, for they forsake their nests in winter, leave their young furnished with every convenience, and retire themselves to other places, where, in all probability, they live without eating.

In general, all insects are equally careful for posterity, and find out proper places wherein to lay their eggs, that, when they are hatched and produce young ones, there may be sufficient food to maintain them; whether they choose trees, plants, or animal substances, still the pascent creature finds a bed which at once supplies food and protection. The plum and the pea each seem to give birth to insects peculiarly formed for residing in them. The pear and apple produce a white moth; on the oak leaf are hatched several of beautiful colors, white, green, yellow, brown, and variegated. The manner in which those insects lay their eggs is sufficiently curious; they wound the leaf half through, and then deposit their eggs in the little cavity. As the insect increases, its nidus, or bed, increases also, so that we often see the leaves of trees with round swellings on the surface, upon opening of which we may discover numberless insects not yet

come to maturity. On oak trees these nests appear like little buds, and are in fact only gems or buds, which are increased in thickness when they ought to have been pushed out in length. The insect thrusts one or more eggs into the very heart of the gem, which begins to be turgid in June, and but for this would have shot out in July. This egg soon becomes a maggot, that eats itself a small cell in the midst of the bud, the vegetation of which being thus obstructed, the sap designed to nourish it is diverted to the remaining parts of the bud, which are only scaly integuments that by this means grow large, and become a cover ing to the case in which the insect lies. But not only the oak, but the willow, and some other trees and plants, have knobs thus formed, which generally grow in or near the rib of the leaf. Among these cases formed by insects, the Aleppo galls may be reckoned as the most useful, the insects of which, when come to maturity, gnaw their way out, as may be seen by the little holes in every nut. But all these are formed by the ichneumon kinds of flies, namely, of those kinds which are vulgarly called the blue-bottle fly.

Those kinds, however, which do not wound the leaf, take great pains to lay their eggs on the surface, in the exactest and most curious manner. When thus deposited, they are always fastened thereto with a glue, and constantly at the same end. Those which lay them in the waters, place them in beautiful rows, and generally in a sizy substance to prevent their being carried away with the motion of the water. Upon posts, and on the sides of windows in country villages, little round eggs have been seen resembling pearls, which produced small hairy caterpillars, and those like the rest are all laid in very regular order. The gnat, though so very small, is yet very curious in the manner of depositing her eggs, or spawn. It lays them on the water, but fixes them to some floating substance by means of a stalk, which

prevents them from sinking. The eggs are contained in a sort of transparent jelly, and very neatly laid; when hatched by the warmth of the season, they sink to the bottom, where they become small maggots, stick to the stones, and provide themselves cases, or cells, which they creep into or go out of at pleasure, and thus continue till they take the usual change into that of a fly. Most of these insects are tinged with one principal color, resembling either that of the leaves on which they subsist, or the branches to which they fasten; on these they march with great slowness, and by this artifice are confounded with what they subsist upon, so as to escape the birds, their rapacious and watchful enemies. Such is the manner with those insects which being hatched from eggs, are then transformed into caterpillars, which may be called their eating state; after that, wrapped round with a covering of their own fabrication, and thus turning into nymphæ, which may be called their sleeping state; and lastly, furnished with wings, and metamorphosed into butterflies, which is their generating state.

But there are numberless other insects which are brought forth alive, such as the spider, and the snail produced with a shell, which grows with its growth, and is never found to forsake it. These are never seen to change, but continue their growth; the spider, as it becomes older, has its legs longer, and if they be cut off, like those of the lobster they grow out afresh. The snail, as it becomes more old, acquires additional ringlets to its shell, and contains in itself both sexes. But there is an animal lately discovered, whose powers of generation are still more extraordinary than any thing hitherto taken notice of, and from the phenomena attending which, M. Buffon has ventured to affirm, that he still believes there may be such a thing as equivocal generation. The animal in question is called the polypus, a small reptile found on aquatic plants, and in muddy ditches. This

surprising creature, though cut into ever so many parts, still continues to live in every division, and each, in less than three days, becomes in every respect a perfect polypus, like that which was at first divided. This I think may be justly esteemed the lowest of animated beings, and scarce to be ranked above the sensitive plant, except by being endowed with a locomotive faculty, or a power of moving from one leaf to another. It is thus that nature chooses to mix the kinds of being by imperceptible gradation, so that it becomes hard to determine where animals end, or vegetables begin. In this there are evident marks of her wisdom in filling up every chasm in the great scale of being, so that no possible existence may be wanting in her universal plan. Were we to ask why these minute creatures, in general little regarded by man, except from the prejudice they are of to his labors, were formed in such great abundance, it would be no easy task to find a reply. For man's use they were not made, as they are allowed to be noxious to him; nor for the sustenance of other animals that may be of use to him, since the advantages of the latter cannot compensate for damage done by the former; perhaps the wisest answer would be, that every creature was formed for itself, and each allowed to seize as great a quantity of happiness from the universal stock, as was consistent with the universal plan; thus each was formed to make the happiness of each; the weak of the strong, and the strong of the weak, but still in proportion to every order, power of conquest and enjoyment. Thus we shall find, that though man may be reciprocally useful to other animals, yet in some measure they were formed for his use, because he has been endowed with every power of rendering them subservient, and enjoying their submission.

PART V.-OF BOTANY IN GENERAL.

If we consider the different methods in which the knowledge of Botany has been treated of late, we shall find that none of the sciences so much require abridgment. The science of Vegetables may properly enough be divided into three parts; namely that of their arrangement in the Botanical nomenclature, their culture, and their properties. The last is the only one of real importance; the two former being subservient to it, and of no other benefit but as tending to make the latter more. serviceable or more readily comprehended.

When the knowledge of Vegetables is once reduced into a science, it is requisite that their names and distribution should be the first thing delivered; but those who first attempted to learn the science from nature herself, knew the plant and its properties before they assigned it a name. We have been nourished with the fruits, we have been clad with the leaves or barks, and have built huts of the wood of trees, before we became solicitous as to their appellations; chance rather than sagacity first taught us the use of plants, and their names followed their known utility. Hence it is obvious, that those immense labors which some late botanists have undergone to give us a list of the names of plants, can tend but little towards the discovery of their proper

ties.

One would be led to suppose, from the repeated endeavors to systematize this science, that the naming of plants was all they thought students had to learn. There have been more attempts made, and time consumed in making catalogues of this nature, than if properly directed, would have discovered several new properties in the vegetable world, as yet unknown. There have been numberless efforts made to impress distinct ideas of each plant, without giving the whole description; but every botanical