VOL. XVII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 527 



upwards; but afterwards the seed and fruit growing heavier, it bends the stalk, 

 and turns downwards to the earth. The same thing is in apples, pears, &c. 

 These ligaments, by which the seeds are nourished, have their coats or bark, 

 within which, as I guess, are more than lOO small vessels, in the .filberd, all 

 wreathed and twisted up after a spiral manner, as in fig. 6. It is observable, 

 that this ligament is fastened, in almost all seeds, to that part whence the 

 embryo plant arises, as in fig. 7, which represents a filberd larger than natural, 

 that the vessels proceeding from the ligament may be more visible; where the 

 ligament goes from A to B, branching all the way into ramifications, and these 

 again into lesser, all which meet again at the place whence they began, that is, 

 where the plant is to have its beginning. 



In the 8th fig. I have shown the ligament of an almond, cut transverse, 

 C D E F G is the cortical part; it is divided into 7 partitions, meeting at H, 

 each of a reddish substance ; the vessels to be seen in one of the spaces are 

 represented by FGH, from the view whereof may be collected the great num- 

 ber of vessels in the whole ligament, by means of which the seeds of the 

 almond and filberd are nourished. 



If we consider the propagation of animals, and that they are so long nourished 

 in the uterus by means of the umbilical vessels, till they are fit for a more open 

 life, and are then no longer kept prisoners ; and again, that the embryo which 

 is to be the future plant, perhaps a tree, is so long contained in that body 

 which we call the seed, and fed by means of a ligament from its matrix, viz 

 the tree, till it be of a competent growth, and has a sufficiency to provide for 

 itself, and grow when exposed on the bare ground, and then it is no longer 

 kept up. I say, if we consider these two methods of nature, we shall find no 

 other difference between plants and animals, than that the first wanting a loco- 

 motive power, cannot couple as animals do, and therefore must contain in the 

 same individual, not only the origin of the future plants, which I compared to 

 the animalcule in the male sperm, but also the maternal nourishment suffi- 

 cient for it, till it is furnished with a root to provide for itself. This nourish- 

 ment is a sort of flour, which encompasses the embryo plant, and in the seed 

 makes the two lobes. 



If we compare plants with birds, we shall find, that as in birds, which are 

 male and female, it is necessary for the animalcule of the male, already endowed 

 with a living soul, to be placed near the yolk of the egg of the female, to be 

 thence so long nourished til! it is fit to receive its food from the mother, or 

 gather it off the ground : so in plants the embryo is placed next to a sort of 

 fine flour, which I compare to the yolk of the egg, which not only defends the 

 young plant, but likewise affords it its first aliment. 



