I 53 ) 



and made a drawing of it as feen through the microfcope, which is 

 to be seen at Jig. 14, CDEFG. This ligament is divided into 

 feven compartments, whidi compartments are of a reddifh colour ; 

 the velfels they contain, I have reprefented in the figure as they are 

 placed in one of the compartments at F G H ; and from a view of 

 the veflels in this tingle compartment, any one may eafily figure to 

 himfelf the great number of veflels in the ligament, by which the 

 Almond, the Filbert, and moft feeds are nourifhed ; for upon exa- 

 mining the ligament of the Filbert, I found no difference in it, ex- 

 cej^it that the ligament of the Almond was larger in every part. 



In my remarks and contemplations refpe(3;ing the propagation of 

 trees and the nature of feeds, I turned my attention to the Willow, 

 which is no otherwife propagated among us, than by cutting off a 

 branch and planting it in the ground, where it grows to a tree. But 

 becaufe I had obferved feveral Willows growing in fields and on the 

 banks of flreams, in places where I judged they were not planted 

 by hand in the way I have defcribed, but to have been produced 

 fi'om feeds ; I turned my mind to difcover what was the fruit or pro- 

 duce of the Willow, in order to difcover the nature of its feed. The 

 only fruit of the Willow is a kind of wool or cotton produced on it, 

 about the beginning of the month of June, and at that feafon, tipon 

 examining this cotton, I faw lyi"g i^ ^' many dark coloured parti- 

 cles, a little larger than grains of fand. Upon viewing thefe parti- 

 cles by the microfcope, I found them to be the feed of tlie tree, and 

 that the cotton and thefe feeds were formed in a kind of cells of a 

 violet colour, and of thefe cells I counted feventy-five, placed near 

 each other on a fmall branch, which feemed deflined for no other 

 purpofe but to produce the feed> and in each of thefe cells, three, 

 four, or five fmall feeds lying among the cotton ; and I could per- 

 ceive that the cotton was formed out of the feeds in the time of their 

 growth. Thefe feeds were of the fize reprefented at fg. 1 5 : the 

 cotton of the feed was in two, three, four, five, and fometimes of 

 fix filaments, joined together by a kind of knot and united to the 



