Account of the Ontitborynchus Paradoxus. 1 79 



Chap. VI. 



Of the Glands. 



Whether plants have glands analogous to thofe of animals ; 

 that is to fav, organs proper for giving to the fluids the Qua- 

 lities neceffary for the development and prefervation ot the 

 being by making them undergo new combinations, and by 

 feparating from them the ufelels or prejudicial qualities, is a 

 queftion not eafy to be determined. In fo delicate a fubjecl:, 

 fads and reafoning are equally obfcure : however, it appears 

 to me beyond a doubt that we do not catch with our beft 

 microfcopes but the coarfe part of the vegetable organization. 

 I cannot conceive that the transfufion of the fluids of one cell 

 into another is fufficient to modify thefe fluids fo far as to 

 change them into organized matter, and to render them fuf- 

 ceptible of giving a new increafe and new vigour to the plant. 

 I cannot conceive either that the common laws of chemiltry 

 could alone effect this phenomenon, becaufe, in either hypo- 

 thefis, nothing could prevent labour or chance from unveiling 

 to man the (ecret of nature : but this confequence is repug- 

 nant to reafon. It appears, then, to me more judicious to 

 admit fecretory organs in which the fluids are aflimilated. It 

 muft, indeed, be fuppofed that the membranes are not im- 

 penetrable to the fluids, fince they dilate, unfold themfelves, 

 and change their nature; but they muft necefiarily modify 

 the fluids, fince the latter, by penetrating them, become ca- 

 pable of increafmg the membranous lifliie in all its dimen- 

 lions : it is in the membranes, then, that we muft fearch for 

 the vegetable glands. It might be fuppofed, with fome ap- 

 pearance of truth, that the opake and irregular rolls with 

 which the pores and apertures of the large tubes are bordered 

 are glandulous bodies. The filaments of the tracheae, the 

 thicknefs of which greatly furpafTts that of the membrane?, 

 feem alfo to difcharge the fame functions ; and what gives to 

 thefe probabilities more weight is, the confideration that the 

 mucilage, which is transformed into organized tifllie, is al- 

 ways accumulated around the fmall and large tubes, which 

 are all covered with thefe opake bodies. 



[ 1 o be continued.] 



XXX. Short Account of the Ormthorynchus Paradoxus, or 

 Duckbilled Platypus. 



X HIS animal, of all the quadrupeds yet difcovercd, feems 



to be the mod extraordinary in its conformation, as it exhi- 



Vol.XIII. No. 50, N bits 



