( 290 ) 



I alfo placed before the microfcope two fides of one of thefe 

 tubes or velTels in the Rufh, five of which generally form the ca- 

 vity of the tube, in order, if poffible, to difcover the nature of their 

 formation. This at firft appeared to me to be fomething fimilar to the 

 bafket work, or hurdles, with which our country people fence their 

 fields againll cattle, and which in other countries are placed on the 

 outfides of houfes, and afterwards daubed over with clay. Fig. 34, 

 L M N Q, reprefents one fide of this tube in the Rufli, drawn from 

 the microfcope as nearly as the limner could copy it. Q N O P, re- 

 prefents another fide of the tube. 



What appeared to me particularly worthy of note in this object 

 was, that the before mentioned fides of the tubes were not com- 

 pofed merely of the veflels running along thofe fides, and of 

 which they feemed to be compofed, in like manner as I had hi* 

 therto conceived, that all the tubes of wood received their growth, 

 or confifl:ed of their own proper veflels ; but the contrary here ap- 

 peared to me, for I faw that each tube in the Rufli arofe from, or 

 was compofed of, various peculiar fmall tubes. 



In fig. 34, QN reprefents a fmall tube in the fide of the cavity 

 in the Rufli, to which I may not improperly give the name of a 

 rufliy blood -veflel, and from which the fide LMNQ, in part pro- 

 ceeds, and from which alfo the fide Q N O P, is compofed or pro- 

 duced. This veflel, which I fo call a blood-veflel, and alfo all the 

 vefl^els of which the fides of the large veflels in the Rufli are com- 

 pofed, do again confifl: of many oblong parts, or rather of wonder- 

 fully minute veflels, from which vefl^els a great number of fmall 

 veflels a rife, and of thefe, the fides of the large tubes in tlie Rufli 

 are compofed. 



Thefe minute veflels, which I call blood- veflels, and are, as I have 

 faid, compofed of Hill fmaller veflels, give rife to a great number of 

 liorizontal veflels, which take their courfe in as regular and exacl 

 order among the other veflels, as we may fee in the joints of the 

 bamboo or reed from Japan. 



Pp 2 



