( 55 ) 



When this feed had lain in the wet land thirty-fix hours, it ap- 

 peared as at jig. 19, G H I K L. And here it appears how much 

 of the feed was to form the root, which is marked by the letters 

 GH K L ; and it was not only grown longer, but in the very fliort 

 fpace I have mentioned, fix diltindl; roots had grown out, as repre- 

 lented at G L ; and thofe parts, H I K, which I have defcribed to 

 be like leaves, and which, while the feed was dry, could not be 

 feparated without the greateft difficulty, now opened as it were of 

 themfelves, to make room for the plant contained between them. 

 And when this feed had remained in the moill; fand feventy-two 

 hours, I found that the roots had fpread themfelves into divers 

 branches, which were fo fi:rongly twifiied among the particles of 

 fand, that it was impoflible to feparate them without breaking the 

 roots. 



It is well worthy of remark, refpecting the Willow, that the feeds 

 are ripe befare the leaves on the tree are grown to their proper 

 fize, whereas the fruits of moft trees, and confequently the feeds 

 contained in them, do not arrive at maturity till much later in the 

 fummer, or elfe in autumn ; fo that in the Willow, the feed being- 

 ripe in the fpring, a new tree may be produced from it the fame 

 year. This I have alfo obferved in the Elm : for, about the end of 

 May, I took fome feeds, which are of a very fmall fize, from an 

 Elm, when the leaves on the tree were about half grown : thefe 

 feeds, which were dry, I put into wet fand, and after three days 

 they began to grow. 1 have alfo found that the Poplar tree, which 

 produces a cotton formed with two flat fides, like the Willow cot- 

 ton and the Indian cotton, produces its feed about the end of May, 

 or the beginning of June. 



Here we fee, that in fuch a fmall feed as that of the WilloWj 

 not only the young plant and the root of it, which is provided with 

 veflels as if it was a complete tree, can be feen, but alfo that 

 within fix-and-thirty hours tlie feed will begin to grow, even in 

 a clofe room, fo that the young roots may be dillinctly feen, 



