HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GO SSI P. 



109 



surround and protect the decrepitated old rotting 

 bole. 



Another way in which aged willows are resusci- 

 tated, is by their power of sending down roots from 

 the head within the hollowibole into the soil, thus 

 giving fresh anchorage to the old tree ; and when 

 the decayed shell at last gives way to age and time, 

 a scion of the demolished tree is left to occupy the 

 ground, and to take the place of its departed sire. 

 I have here given representations of two hollow 

 willows standing on the banks of the river Teme, 

 near Pawick, Worcestershire, which well exemplify 

 the process of roots descending into the ground from 

 above, within the hollow tree. The willow is thus 

 invigorated with new life, and resists for many years 

 the wintry gales that would otherwise have over- 

 thrown it (see figs. 59 and 60). Modern writers 



Fig. 60. Hollow trunk of willow near Pawick. 



have taken little note of this mode of growth, 

 though it was remarked by Evelyn, in his " Sylva," 

 many years ago. He says : " Trees will likewise 

 grow frequently out of the bole of the other ; and 

 some roots will penetrate through the whole length 

 of the trunk, and, fastening in the very earth, they 

 burst the including tree, as it has happened in 

 willows, where an ash-tree has sprung likely from 

 some key or seed dropt upon the headof it." Evelyn's 

 observation, however, rather applies to the roots of 

 trees that have got fortuitously upon the heads of 

 pollard willows, and there vegetated, and not to the 

 resuscitated growth of the willow within itself, as I 

 have here described. But Dr. Plot, in his " Natural 

 History of Oxfordshire," has mentioned an elm, 

 " hollow as* a drum, and decorticated at the base," 

 which, as I have mentioned in the Willow, had " let 

 down roots all the length of this empty case, which 

 striking when they came to the earth, from whence 

 it derived nourishment, maintaining a flourishing 

 top, and has till now passed for a little miracle." 

 This curious elm does not appear to have been 

 noticed since Dr. Plot's time, and I fear is not now 

 in existence. A few other trees throw down roots 

 in this remarkable manner, but it is most obvious in 

 the willow. 



Green Hill Summit, Worcester. 



THE MICROSCOPE AND MICROSCOPIC 

 WORK. 



No. V.— Bt F. Kitton. ' 



WE propose in the present paper to give some 

 account of Dr. Hooke's celebrated work 

 the " Micrographia, or some physiological descrip- 

 tions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses, 

 with observations and enquiries thereupon." The 

 microscopic observations of Dr. Hooke preceded 

 those of Leeuwenhoek several years. (The 

 "Micrographia" was published in 1GG5, Leeu- 

 wenhoek's earliest work, " Anatomia, seu interiora 

 rerum cum in animatarum ope et beneficio exquisi- 

 tissimorum Microscopiorum detecta," was published 

 in 1687. The " Micrographia " consisted of a folio 

 volume of 246 pages, and 3S plates ; the figures are 

 inferior in accuracy to those of Leeuwenhoek, pro- 

 bably owing to the fact that Hooke used a com- 

 pound instrument instead of a simple lens. That 

 Hooke's figures and descriptions were thought 

 highly of at the time, will be seen from the fol- 

 lowing remarks of Swammerdam (he is writing 

 of Hooke's figure of the Larva of a Gnat), " que 

 nous voyons depeints en grand dans les figures 

 admirables de Monsieur Hook" (sic), page 101; 

 and again at page 104, he says, " ainsi que V incom- 

 parable Monsr. Hooke nous a decouvert le premier, 

 &c." * Although the book and its author were thus 

 highly esteemed, no second edition was ever re- 

 quired, but in 1745 a reprint of the plates and 

 a resume of the text was published by John Bowles, 

 " Printseller at the Black Horse, in Corn/till." This 

 reprint was entitled " Micrographia Restaurata, or 

 the Copper Plates of Dr. Hooke's Wonderful 

 Discoveries by the Microscope. Reprinted and 

 fully explained, whereby the most valuable particu- 

 lars in that celebrated Author's Micrographia are 

 brought together in a narrow Compas. And inter- 

 mixed occasionally with many entertaining and 

 instructive Discoveries and Observations in 

 Natural History." Eolio, pp. 65, plates 33. The 

 editor of this resume remarks in the preface, that " As 

 these were some of the first Drawings of Objects 

 examined by the Microscope, so likewise are they 

 without Comparison some of the best that were 

 ever taken in so great a number ; there are no less 

 than Thirty-tliree plates, which contain a delightful 

 variety of Subjects largely magnified and curiously 

 engraved. At the Time Dr. Hooke published this 

 Work a verbose and diffused way of writing was in 

 fashion, which seemed to us at present tedious and 

 distasteful : the Doctrine of equivocal generation, or 

 a spontaneous Production of many Species of Living 

 Creatures, as well as Vegetables, without any other 

 Parents than Accident and Putrefaction prevailed 



* This is from an old French translation of Swammer- 

 dam's " History of Insects," published in Utrecht in 1682. 



