Book IIL of Trunks. 
CHAR V: 
Of the Figuration of. Trunks. 
HE Fifih Head, hall be, of the Figuration of 
Trunks. Which alfo, as well as the making of 
Liquors, dependeth upon the Strudture of the 
Parts, As Firft, almoft all Shrubs (ceteris pa- 
ribus ) have a greater number of Aer-Veffels; and 
thoft of a finaller Size 5 and confequently much 
dE fpread abroad, as molt cafily yielding to the 
El OY: magnetick Power of the Aer, according as we 
ps 3 7> have more fully demonftrated, in fpeaking of 
the Vegetation of Roots : as in Elder, Hazel, Fig, Sumach, and the like. 
By which fpreading, the faid Aer-Veféls do fooner, and more eafily 
ftrike into the Barque, and fo produce collateral Buds and Branches, and 
that upon the firft rifing of the Body from the Root : thatis, the Plant 
becomes a Shrub. 
2. $. BUT if the faid Aer-Vefels are very large, they will not 
yield fo eafily to fhoot out collaterally 5 and fo the Trunk grows up 
taller and more entire:as in Oak, Wallaut, Elm,&c. wherein they aré 
exceeding large,is feen.Hence alfo the Vine if fupported,willgrow. to a 
prodigious length. And Hops and Bryozy,are fome of the talleft,amongft 
all Anzmal Gromths: the Aer-Veffels of all which, are very large. Whereas 
Borage, and many other like Plants, although the Pores of their Paren= 
chyma, are vattly wide,and filled with Sup 3 yet becaufe their Aer-Veffels 
are finall, they are therefore but Dwarf Plants. Wherefore the tall- 
neßs or advancement of a Plant or Tree, dependeth not upon the Plenty 
of Sap, how great foever, but on the Largenefs of the ‚Aer-Veffels. 
3. $. AGAIN, as a Plant or Tree grows either Shrubby, or Tal 
and Entire, according to the Size of the faid Vefels : fo from their 
Pofition, doth it grow Slender or Thick, So, where they keep more 
within the compafs of a Ring, as in Elm, and Afb, the Tree, in pro- 
portion, ufually grows taller, and lef thick. But where the faid 
Veffels are fpread more abroad, and efpecially. are poftured in Rays,as 
they are in Oak, the Tree grows very thick. Becaufe the faid Veffels thus 
ftanding all along nearerto the Infertions, there is a more teady and 
copious paflage of the Aer out of the one into the other; and fo the 
Diametral growth of the Woed is mote promoted. 
4. $. LASTLY, from the fame general caufe it is, That the Trunks of 
Vegetables are either Round or Angular. Thole of all Trees are 
Round. Becaufe the Barque, being here thicker, and the Aer-Veffels 
bound up witha greater quantity of W064; the Aer hath not faffici 
ent power to move them, and the Barque with them, into thofe various 
Pofitions ox Figurations, as the Trunks of Herbs do yield to. 
3: $- Yet the caufe of the various /hapes of the Trunk, is not the 
Aer alone; but partly, the Principles of the Plants themfelves, in con- 
judtion therewith 5 according to the predominion whereof, and chiefly 
of fome certain kind of Salt or Salts, as 1 (hall hefeafter (2) more 
particularly explicate’) the Trunk is Square, Triangular, Pentangular, 2 
or otherwife Figured. And thus much in general of the Figuration Y 
of Trunks: 
© HAE 
) B&P; 
