36 On the Anatomy of Vegetables* 



ftone that it feems to form one body with it, no mineralogist 

 can with certainty explain. 



The hypothecs which I have ventured to form of this 

 lingular and Certainly uncommon fuhtcrranean mixture is, 

 that the charcoal was burnt in the neighbourhood either in 

 the ufual manner or by natural (ire, and that fome fragments 

 of it, by fome convuliiou of nature, were thrown to the above 

 depth, where they united with the ferruginous matter, and 

 by thefe means produced the above remarkable phenomenon. 

 On manv fragments one can obferve the tranfition of the not 

 completely burnt wood into iron-Rone; even the bark of the 

 wood, actually converted into iron-ltone, may be clearly di- 

 flinguifhcd ; and the perfectly black natural or artilicial char- 

 coal, poiTeliing all the properties of the charcoal of burnt 

 wood, lies undecompofed in it: but it would be worth while 

 to fubject it to a more accurate chemical refcarch, in order 

 to examine its component parts. I hope to obtain, by one 

 of my friends, a more detailed account of this fubterranean 

 phenomenon; and therefore I fhall only add at prefent, that 

 this iron-Rone is exceedingly eafy of fufion, and lb much fo, 

 that it is ufed as a flux for other kinds, and, in fome meafure, 

 indifpenfably neceflarv at the forges, efpecially when caft ar- 

 ticles are to be manufactured witii advantage. 



VIII. "Memoir on the Anatomy of Vegetables. Bead before 

 the Phyjical Clafs of the hijfitutc^by C. MlRBEL *. 



. Of the Elementary Organs, 



,/jlFTER ftudying the works of Duhamel, Senebier, De 

 Sauflure, and feveral other philofophers, without being able 

 to form any fixed opinion of the internal anatomy of vege- 

 tables, it appeared to me that it would be more advantageous 

 to Rudy nature in her own works. I endeavoured to banifh 

 from my mind every thing fy Hematic, in order that my ob- 

 servations might be free from every kind of bias. All vege- 

 tables have too much relation in the mode of the develop- 

 ment of their organization not to exhibit great fimiiitude. 

 This reflection, which naturally prefents itfelf to the mind, 

 induced me to direct my firft observations to one fpecies. I 

 made choice of the elder, as having a loofer texture, and 

 eafier to be obferved, than that of manv other vegetables. 

 During fix months, I employed all the known procefles for 



* From the Journal tie Pbjfique, Germinal, an. 10. 



acquiring 



