32 MEMOIR OF SWAMMERDAM. 



inquiry nearly at the same time, and each of the 

 three philosophers shewed that the dust on the lower 

 surface of the leaves consists of an aggregation of 

 small capsules, each surrounded hy a jointed elastic 

 ring, hy the contraction and elasticity of which the 

 capsules, when arrived at maturity, are opened with 

 a spring, and the seeds (sporules) scattered to a dis- 

 tance ; the whole exhibiting, Swammerdam remarks, 

 the most wonderful construction that the mind of man 

 can imagine, and so eminently displaying the con- 

 trivance, order, providence, and wisdom of the great 

 Author of all things, that, perhaps, a more striking 

 specimen of these His adorable perfections is not to 

 be found in any other part of the visible creation. 

 The size of the capsules, he states, is so minute that 

 they are almost invisible to the naked eye, it being 

 scarcely possible to make a dot on paper, with the 

 finest pencil, of so small dimensions. In each of these 

 capsules he reckoned about forty-one seeds, which 

 are, of course, invisible to the unassisted eye; to 

 examine them, he fixed some to a hair of his head, 

 and, in comparison, the hair appeared like the mast 

 of a first-rate man-of-war ! He believes that there 

 are more than sixty capsules in each little cluster ; 

 consequently, at a very low calculation, every one 

 of the latter will contain 2460 seeds. The reflec- 

 tions with which our author concludes his remarks 

 on this subject we shall here subjoin, both on ac- 

 count of their intrinsic value, and as an example 

 of that strain of sentiment and devotional feeling 

 which pervades his writings. t ' Ye u may hence con- 



