278 A new View of Vegelalle Life, 



been so highly impregnated with the earths, that stratum super 

 stratum were so rapidly deposited that they proved the grave 

 rather than permanent habitations for theif tenants. Hence many 

 of the species perished entirely, and others were vastly dimi- 

 nished. But in the fifth period the water, being sufficiently 

 purified by immense depositions, not only permitted the more 

 perfect orders of aquatic animals to exist, but the Creator re- 

 plenished the ocean with an increased number of inferior inha- 

 bitants suited to the improved state of their element. 

 I am, sir. 



Your very obedient servant, 

 Wycombe, Oct. 9, 1816. AnDRE^T HoRN. 



LVI. A new View of Vegetable Life. By Mrs. Agnes 

 Ibbetson. 



To Mr. Tilloch. 



Sir, — 1 HE very curious fact I have now to exhibit throws 

 (I think) a new light on vegetable life, perfectly confirms the 

 truth of all I have hitherto shown of the history of their ge- 

 neral formation, and renders the commencement conformable to 

 those universal laws which appear to be established not only in 

 the vegetable, but in the animal and mineral world ; as I shall 

 show at the conclusion of this letter. 



In m.v last I depicted the curious manner in which the flowers 

 are developed in the interior, both in trees and herbaceous plants, 

 the year they are completed at the exterior of the vegetable. 

 But I am now authorized to suppose that there is a prior for- 

 mation, both of leaves and flowers, prior to that in which they 

 are collected and enlarged in the middle of the plant. In the 

 first I was able to follow the formation in a regular series, till 

 they appeared opening into flower, and making their way out of 

 the vegetable through the buds in the usual manner; but the 

 luds in this case are really the vehicles for completing and send- 

 ing out the bunches of flowers and leaves, and not (as it was 

 supposed) the part in which they are formed: — yet to trace in 

 a series what I am now going to show, is impossible, as it will 

 not admit of it. I shall, however, give an exact account of the 

 •whole process, and the consequences that must (1 think) result 

 from such a formation. 



Having cut an extremely thin specimen of the vvood of the 

 cupressus longitudinally, and placed it in my slider, under my 

 best microscope (though using very low powers) I was surprised 

 to see a sort of running pattern of leaves ^xA flowers adorning 

 every two or three stripes of the wood, and now and then col- 

 lecting 



