Book L of Plants. 
CHAP. IL 
Of the ROOT. 
AVING Examin'd and purfi’d the Degrees of 
Vegetation in the Seed, we find its two Lobes have 
here their utmoft period: and, that having conveyed 
their Sezeinalities into the Radicle and Plume; thefe 
therefore, asthe Root and Trunk of the Plant, {till 
fürvive. Of thefe, in their order, we next pro- 
2 ceed to fpeak; and firft, of the Root : whereof, as 
well as ofthe Seed, we muft by Diffedion inform our felves. 
2. $. In Difleétion of a Root then, we fhall find it with the Ra- 
dicle, asthe Parts of an Old Man with thofe ofa Fetus, fubftantially, 
one. The firt Part occurring is its Ski», the Original whereof is 
from the Seed: For that extreme thin Cuticle which is {pread over the 
Lobes of the Seed, and from thence over the Radicle, upon the 
fhooting of the Radicle into a Root, is co-extended, and becomes its 
skin. 
We $. The next Part isthe Cortical Body. Which,when itis thin, 
is commonly called the Barque. The Original hereof, likewife is 
from the seed; or the Parenchyma, which is there common both to 
the Lobes and Radicle, being by Vegetation augmented and prolon; 
into the Root, the lame becomes the Parenchyma of the Bargue. 
4. $. The Contexture of this Parenchyma may be well illuftrated 
by that of a sponge, being a Body Porous, Dilative and Pliable. Its 
Pores, as they are innumerable, fo, extream finall. Thefe Pores are 
not only füfceptive of fo much Moifture as to fill, but alfo to enlarge 
themfelves, and fo to dilate the Cortical Body wherein they are : which 
by the fhriv'ling in thereof, upon its being exposd to the Air, is alfo 
feen. In which dilatation, many of its Parts becoming more lax and 
diftant, and none of them füffering a folution of their continuity 5 “tis 
a Body alfo fufficiently pliable 5 that is to fay, a most exquifitely fine- 
wrought Sponge, 
5. §. The Extention of thefe Pores is much alike by the length 
and breadth of the Root 3 which from the fhrinking up of the Cortical 
Body, in a piece of a cut Root, by the fame dimenfions, is argwd, 
„6 $. The propartions of this Cortical Body are various : If thin, 
Us, as isfaid, called a Barque; and thought to ferve to no other end, 
than what is vulgarly aferib’d to a Barque 5 which is a narrow 
Ifa Bulky Body, in comparifon with That within it, asin the young 
Roots of Cichory, Afparagur, Bc. tis here, becaufe the faireft, there- 
fore taken for the prime Part 5 which, though, as to Medicinal ufe, 
it 155 yet, as to the private ufe of the Plant, not fo. The Colonr 
hereof, though it be o iginally white, yet in the continued growth of 
the Root, divers Tindures, as yellow in Dock, red in Biftort, are there- 
Into introduced, 
AU 
conceit. 
H 2 7. 
BEd 3.0. f 4. 
