VOL. XVII.3 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 'SQl 



I examined nutmegs, as well preserved as dry ones, and found always under 

 the mace a 'thin skin, before coming to the hard shell, and in one place a liga- 

 ment, by which it was united to the tree, which entered the hard shell, and 

 was joined to the nut at that part whence the root shoots out ; which was all I 

 could find, as they are gathered green, and spoiled in the curing, so that they 

 will not grow. 



I took the largest gooseberries, and in their seeds, of which there are some- 

 times near 60 in one berry, each nourished with a peculiar ligament ; viewing 

 the embryo plant, I found all the parts as in other seeds. Examining the pro- 

 portion the embryo plant in these seeds bears to the seed itself, I found the seed 

 7 times longer, broader, and thicker than the embryo plant, that is, more than 

 300 times its bulk. 



Out of one ojf the largest black currants I took 63 seeds, each furnished with 

 a particular ligament, and with its embryo plant, with the first two leaves visi- 

 ble. In this I reckon the seed is above 60 times larger than the little plant. 

 Hence we may conclude there is no seed but what has its embryo plant. I have 

 cut open many bulbous roots, but could never meet with any thing material. 

 Examining tulip seeds, I found the origin of the plant, oblong, and round at 

 each end, furnished with ascending vessels. In the seed of the olive we may 

 with the naked eye discern not only the young plant in the kernel, for it is 

 very large, but the membranes enwrapping it, and the ligament, which is of a 

 different colour from the membrane. And in cassia- seed is observable the 

 young plant, and especially the leaves, which I conceive are so large for the 

 better nourishing the root, which is in this seed very small, and by sowing it 

 in wet sand, the root began to shoot down, the leaves displayed themselves, 

 and the young plant appeared between them. The seed of the lime-tree is the 

 most pleasant spectacle ; for in these, the young leaves neither lie plain, nor 

 are wrapped up, but wrinkled like the first leaves of trees in the spring, of a 

 pleasing green colour; and, with a microscope, the fibres of the leaves are very 

 visible; and, contrary to most other seeds, the root of the embryo grows next 

 the tree. 



I examined the crystalline humour of a horse's eye, and found it little dif- 

 ferent from that of an ox, hog, sheep, &c. only it was very large, so that its 

 greater axis was f of an inch. I formerly observed that there was no cavity in 

 the optic nerve of an ox's eye, but that its substance was made up of many 

 fibres or threads, which were filled with gently flowing globules; and that if 

 one of these globules, in one of these threads nearest to the eye, were moved 

 by the object, by this means not only the next, but so successively all the glo- 

 bules in that thread ; and lastly, the brain itself would be moved. I have found 



