( 295 ) 



give it a place in a cabinet of curiofities ; and, when llripped of its 

 outer coat or fhell, and of an inner covering or membrane, the 

 beauty of it is ftill more confpicuous. To give a view of this pretty 

 object, I caufed a drawing to be made of it from the microfcope, 

 and this is to be feen at Jig. 27, P Q R. 



I alfo caufed a drawing to be made of the young plant taken out 

 of the feed, as it appeared when viewed by the microfcope : this is 

 fhewn at fig. 28, STVW, wherein TVW is the part which 

 would grow up into a plant, and W S T, the root. I had another 

 of thefe young plants placed before a microfcope, of which I have 

 alfo given a drawing at ^g. 29, X Y Z A ; and here again we may 

 fee how this fmall production of Nature exceeds, in beauty, many 

 of her larger works. 



Having for fome time contemplated this feed, I took my little 

 brafs box, which I filled with wet fcowering fand, and placed 

 therein a few of the feeds : the box I carried * in my pocket in the 

 day time, and at night placed it in bed befide me, that it might al- 

 ways be warm, and thereby the vegetation of the feed be expedited, 

 as I had done before with other feeds ; for I was defirous of feeing 

 whether the young plants pictured at^g-. 28 and 29, would agree 

 in fliape with the plant when in vegetation. 



Thefe feeds I examined every day ; the firli and fecond day I 

 faw no other alteration, than that they were fomewhat fwelled : the 

 third day, I faw that the fliell was burft open, and at the lower 

 part of the opening the plant had fprouted about two hair's breadth 

 from the fhell. On the fourth day, I faw with great furprife, that 

 the young plant was grown fix times as large as the original feed, 

 but, as I could not then conveniently get a drawing made of it, I 

 deferred it till the following day, when the young plant was be- 

 come twice as long, as it was the day before. Fig. 30, H I K L, 



* Mr. LfCttwcnhock means the pocket of his brock, (;Vnglice breeches), vihich is made 

 large, and being next the body always warm. 



