46

A DISCOURSE

as well in plants as animals, which growing very fat, are seldom prolific.Some lands, onthe contrary, are so lean, dry, and insipid, as hardly any painswill make them fruitful. Such are mineral and metallic soils, devouringclays, light and ashy sands ; some again are putrid and fungous ; others,though fruitful, producing only venomous plants, hemlock and thedeadly aconite; and some, though wholesome ground, may be poisonedwith unskilful or malicious mixtures, and with damps or arsenical va-pours, which sometimes (though natural) are yet but accidental, and fora season; as when after extraordinary droughts and stagnant air, the earthhath not been seasonably opened, refreshed, and ventilated.

Moreover, ground is sometimes barren and becomes unfruitful, by thevicinity of plants, sucking and detracting the juice of the earth from oneanother. Thus we *ee the reed and fern will not be made to dwell toge-ther ; hemlock and rue are said to be inimicable; the almond and thepalm are seldom fruitful but in conjunction; and perhaps there are effluvia,or certain inconspicuous steams of dusty seeds, which not only impreg-nate places where never grew any before, but ifsue likewise from oneto another, as I observe in our junipers and cyprefs flowering about April,which are trees of consort, and thrive not well alone. The ficus neverkeeps her fruit so well as when planted with the caprific d . By what irra-diations the myrtle thrives so with the fig, or why the vine affects the

thick) each twelve feet long and six inches in breadth. They are fastened together at theends by two ribs on the upper side, leaving a slit of five inches for the entrance of thenarrow spade, a the handle.

“ Plate 2. fig. 1. A front view of the narrow draining spade, a the shaft; b the wingsfor the workman’s foot; c the iron part of the spade, which is gently concave.

“ Fig. 2. A side view, a the shaft; b the wings; c two sharp fins, one on each side,for cutting the next spade graft; d the iron part.

“ Fig. 3. A back view, a the shaft; b the wings; c the cutting fins; d the iron part,which is convex.

“ Fig. 4. A back view in perspective, a the shaft; b the wings; c the fins; d the iron part.

“ Fig. 5. A front view in perspective, a the shaft; b the wings; c the fins; d the ironpart. It will be here proper to remark, that the perspective views must not be measuredby the scale.

“ Fig. 6. The scoop, a a the wooden handle; b the iron scoop.

d Tournefort, during his abode in the islands of the Archipelago , had an opporiunity ofobserving this curious fact, For his account of it,-consult the notes on the Silva, p, 142 ,vol. ii.