alcareous mountains were
produced and elevated; it is also probable, that many of the
insect tribes, or less complicate animals, existed long
before the quadrupeds or more complicate ones, which in some
measure accords with the theory of Linneus in respect to the
vegetable world; who thinks, that all the plants now extant
arose from the conjunction and reproduction of about sixty
different vegetables, from which he constitutes his natural
orders.

As the blood of animals in the air becomes more oxygenated in
their lungs, than that of animals in water by their gills; it
becomes of a more scarlet colour, and from its greater
stimulus the sensorium seems to produce quicker motions and
finer sensations; and as water is a much better vehicle for
vibrations or sounds than air, the fish, even when dying in
pain, are mute in the atmosphere, though it is probable that
in the water they may utter sounds to be heard at a
considerable distance. See on this subject, Botanic Garden,
Vol. I. Canto IV. l. 176, Note.]

"So Trapa rooted in pellucid tides,
In countless threads her breathing leaves divides,
Waves her bright tresses in the watery mass,
And drinks with gelid gills the vital gas;
Then broader leaves in shadowy files advance,
Spread o'er the crystal flood their green expanse; 340
And, as in air the adherent dew exhales,
Court the warm sun, and breathe ethereal gales.

[Footnote: _So Trapa rooted_, l. 335. The lower leaves of
this plant grow under water, and are divided into minute
capillary ramifications; while the upper leaves are broad and
round, and have air bladders in their footstalks to support
them above the surface of the water. As the aerial leaves of
vegetables do the office of lungs, by exposing a large
surface of vessels with their contained fluids to the
influence of the air; so these aquatic leaves answer a
similar purpose like the gills of fish, and perhaps gain from
water a similar material. As the material thus necessary to
life seems to be more easily acquired from air than from
water, the subaquatic leaves of this plant and of sisymbrium,
oenanthe, ranunculus aquatilis, water crow-foot, and some