66 Mr. Howard's Jccount of a Microfcopiail Invsjiigatlon 



of a branch. To the naked eye it is a fine yellow powder. A few 

 grains laid on the glafs plate and viewed with the lens No. 4, fome 

 appear of an irregular angular fhape, opake, except in one or two 

 parts, where light pafling prefents the appearance of a perforation; 

 others nearly fpherical, the furface divided by deprefled lines into 

 a number of convex facets. The tranfparency of thefe is fucb, 

 that they refledt the image of a fmall obje(5l held under them, as 

 well as a drop of liquid. On repeating the examination, the former 

 are found to come from the mort: mature anthers,, and to differ from 

 the latter only as a raifin does from a grape. 



A clear drop of diftilled water being put on. the glafs, both kinds 

 imbibe it with the avidity of a fponge; at the fame time diftending 

 and fpreading abroad in the water, but without any motion further 

 than that which this expanfion caufes. When faturated with 

 water they remain a: the bottom, clear as the liquid itfelf, and all 

 alike diflended to a bulk many times greater than their original one 

 in the dry ftate. They are now feen to bemultUocularcapfuJes, hav- 

 ing fepta in various dire£lions within them, the union of which with 

 the external membrane appears at the angles in the dry ftate, and 

 at the deprefled lines in the wet. 



Thefe capfules may be kept in the water for feveral days without 

 any further perceptible change.. When that is dried up they return 

 to the opake ftate^ and the fame operation may be feveral times re- 

 peated on tham. 



In exhibiting this fpeclacle to fome friends, pure water not being 

 juft at hand, a drop of brandy was fubftituted- for it. This gav& 

 rife to a phenomenon equally curious and unexpe6led. The grains 

 expand, as in water; but in the mean time they are put into rapid 

 motion, each grain darting from fide to fide with the vivacity of a 

 fwarm of gnats in the air. As they approach to complete expanfion 

 tl^e motion dies away, and one after another finks to the bottom. 



By 



