OF EARTH.

II

this is- also eligible according to the purposes you would employ it for;some plants affecting hotter, others, colder exposures; some delight todwell on the hills, others in the vallies and closer seats; and some againare indifferent to either; but, generally speaking, most of them choosethe warm and more benign; and the bottoms are universally fertile, be-ing the recepients of what the showers bring down to them from- the hilhand'more elevated parts..

Another infallible indication is tide nature and floridnefs of the plantswhich the land naturally produces ; as where thistles spontaneously thrive ;where the oak grows tall and spreading; and as the plant is of kind, so toprognosticate for what tillage, or other use, the ground is proper. Thyme,strawberries, betony, and sorrel, direct to wood ; chamomile, to a Mould disposed for corn and hortulan furniture; burnet, to pasture ; mallows,.toroots, and the like, as my Lord Verulam and others observer

On,the contrary, some grounds are so cold, as naturally to bring forthnothing but gorse, broom, holly, yew, juniper, ivy, and box; whichmay happily direct us to the planting of pine, firs, the phillyreas, laurel,Spanish broom, and other perennial verdures, in fuch places,

Mofs, rushes, wild tansey, sedge, flags, fern k yarrow, and where-,plants appear withered or blasted, shrubby and curled, (which are theeffects of immoderate wet, heat and cold, interchangeably)’ are naturalauguries of a cursed soil; yet I have observed some ferny grounds properenough for. coppice and forest-trees. Thus, as by-the plant we mayconjecture of the Mould, so by the Mould we may guefs at the plant;the more herbaceous and tender, springing from the gentle bed; thecoarser and rougher plants, from the rude and churlish. And as someEarths appear to be totally barren, and some, though not altogether so*

s Where fern-grows luxuriantly, we may pronounce the soil favourable to turnips,,corn, and trees. The other plants here mentioned are certain indications of a bad soil.Virgil describes steril grounds by enumerating the plants that naturally grow in suchplaces. There,

--pices: tantum, taxique nocentes

Inlerdum, authedene pandunt vestigia nigra;.

Ge.org. ii,G. 2