( 111 ) 



thought fit to make fuch a provifiou for the propagation of anU 

 mals and vegetables, tlie reafons for which order of things are 

 to us infcrutubie, and refpeding which we can only form con- 

 jedlures. 



In eating Strawberries, my attention was taken by thofe little 

 knobs or riiings we fee on their furface, and I had no doubt tliat 

 each of them was a feed : to- fatisfy myfelf refpefting this, I took 

 one of the largeft and ripeft Strawberries, and picked out feveral 

 of the feeds ; then llripping them of their outward covering, I 

 found each of them provided with a ligament by which it had 

 received its growth, 1 alfo broke open the hard (liell, and found 

 in each feed that fubllance we may call a kernel ; from this ker- 

 nel I took off the membrane, and placing the plant before the 

 microfcope, I caufed a drawing to be made of it, in order to 

 Ihew what numbers of feeds we fwallow in eating only a fpoon- 

 ful of Strawberries ; for, cutting one of the largeft Strawberries 

 into four pieces, I counted in one quarter of it, fifty feeds, and 

 confequently, that one Strawberry was covered with two hundred 

 feeds ; and one of the fmaller ones I judged to haAC an hundred 

 and twenty. 



Fig. 26, A B C D E, reprefents the plant taken out of the feed 

 of a Strawberry ; A B C is that part which woidd grow to a root ; 

 and C D E A, are the two leaves which would firft appear above 

 the ground. 



Thefe two leaves are always moft exadlly joined to each other ; 

 but as, while I was taking out the plant from the feed, the leaves 

 parted a little afunder, I directed the limner to draw them in 

 that pofition, that each leaf might be the eafier diftinguilhed. 



Now, if we recoiled; that a young Strawberry plant, (for I never 

 heard of Strawberries being propagated by fowing), does in one 

 year fend forth various branches (commonly called runners), which 

 in a proper foil conftantly ftrike good roots, and grow up to per- 



