of Keratophyta. 5*7 



View this Bafe attentively, and it appears to condfl of lon- 

 gitudinal Fibres lying clofe Side by Side, and conned ed in- 

 feparably without Violence, running from the Circumference 

 of the Bafe to the ridng Trunk, along which they are dif- 

 pofcd in like manner; and the fame Texture n):iy by good 

 Glafles be traced to the Extremities of the Branches. Thefe 

 GialTes difcover, that what to the naked Eye fcemed to be Fi- 

 bres, are indeed fmall Tubes, of which the whole Shrub con- 

 iifts, but compreiled, and fhrunk in. ' 



If we cut the Trunk, or any large Branch of thefe Kerato- 

 phyta tranfverfely, and examine their Strudure nicely, we 

 may plainly difcover, not only the Courfe of thefe longitu- 

 dinal Tubes, but, like wife, that they are circularly difpofed 

 about the Centre of the Trunk, fomcwhat in the fame man- 

 ner as appears in the annual Circles of Wood, with this Dif- 

 ference however, that in the Keratophyta the Circles do not 

 adhere fo clofely to each other as in Wood ; but appear 

 plainly to be fuperinduced, and often with fome heteroge- 

 neous Matter intervening. 



The Part we have hitherto defcribed, is that which fome 

 Naturalifts have called the woody Part of the Keratophyta ; 

 others, from its affording when burnt a flrong Smell like 

 burning Horn, the horny. 



And this, in all the various Species of this kind of Bodies, 

 however different in Size, Figure, and external Appearance 

 they may be, appears almofl: uniformly to be the fame, ex- 

 hibiting to the View a fimilar Strudure, and the fame Princi- 

 ples, when chemically analyfed. 



Upon this horny or woody Part is fuperinduced a kind of 

 ftony or calcarious Coat, covering both Trunk and Branches 

 to their very Extremities. 



I The 



