.7 it) 



On the Seeds found in the Fig and on Strawhcrries, with the 

 Author s remarks on the great fecundity of Nature in the pro- 

 pagatio7i of plants and animals. 



J HAVE, at times, beftowed much labour in fearching after the young 

 plant in the feed of the Fig, but always without fuccefs ; the reafon 

 of which I took to be, that when Figs are packed up at the places 

 of their growth, in order to be exported, they are gathered before 

 they are ripe. At Icngtli, however, while I was in fearch after fo- 

 reign mites (that little pernicious infccl which finds its way into all 

 kinds of dried provilions, fuch as clicefe, dried fifti and bacon, and 

 alfo dried fruits, as Figs and Railins) I found a Fig with fcA'eral hun- 

 dreds of thefe animals in it, but otherwife of good tafle and full 

 grown, feeming to me as if it had been ripe when gathered. I was, 

 therefore, induced to difleft fome of the fmall feeds it contained; and, 

 breaking open the hard outfide Ihells of feveral of them, I took out 

 the entire kernels they contained, then ftripping this kernel of the 

 membrane furrounding it, and clearing away fome moillure which 

 covered the plant, I faw a complete young plant, conlifting of two 

 leaves, and of the part from which a young tree would in due time 

 Jiave proceeded. 



I have cauled a drawing to be made, from the microfcope, of 

 the }oung plant in one of thefe feeds (of which feeds we know that 

 every Fig contains great numbers), becaufe I have often heard it 

 faid, that eating Figs in great quantities, will breed lice in the 

 ftomach; and that fome perfons (and among them a man of fome 

 eminence) have not fcrupled to alfcrt the fame in writing ; which 

 idle taleis certainly do no other than excite derifion, for 1 am well 

 allured that this notion took its rife from no other caufe than the 

 nniltitude of fmall grains or feeds with which all Figs abound, but 

 ,M hicli not one man in a thoufand knows to be feeds, and Itill Jcii-, 



