b^i PHILOSOPHICAL TBANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1/03 



j4 Description of some Corals and other curious Submarines, lately sent to James 

 Peiiver, F.R.S. from the Philippine Isles, by the Rev. George Joseph Camelli; 

 jilsoan Account of some Plants from Chusan, an Island on the Coast of China, 

 Collected by Mr. James Cuninghame, F.R.S. N° 286, p. I419. 



Among Other vegetables described in this catalogue are the camphor-tree and 

 tea-shrub. . 



Observations on some Animalcula in IVater, the Solution of Silver, ^c. By 

 M, Ant. van Leuwenhoeck. N° 286, p. 1430. :rj #^1 .v^n-nl 



About the latter end of July I saw something shining in the water of the 

 canal here, at Delft, and being desirous to know what it was, I took a glass- 

 tube of almost a foot length, and of a finger's breadth, and tying a string about 

 it, I let it down into the water perpendicularly, till it was quite full. Viewing 

 this water with a microscope, I observed several sorts of animalcula swimming 

 in it, some of which I had never met with before. I viewed this water several 

 times in one day, but could not find out the shining matter which I had seen 

 in the canal. But on the 4th of August observing again, I could see in 8 or 

 10 places several small particles, sticking so fast to the sides of the tube, that 

 although I put the water into a gentle motion, I could not remove them. This 

 induced me to view the same with my microscope, and then I could plainly see 

 those particles, representing a large bough or branch of a tree, with a great 

 number of sprigs about it. Most of these branches were fastened with their 

 stems to the sides of the tube, and seemed to arise out of a very small particle 

 of matter that was likewise so fastened. 



For more satisfaction, I took another tube, longer and broader than the 

 first, well cleaned, and filled it with the same water. I viewed this water also 

 several times, after it had stood 30 hours in the tube, and again discovered the 

 same sort of boughs, as complete and perfect as if you were to see the same 

 with your naked eye on a tree; and among others one in such a position, as if 

 the thick branches from whence the rest proceeded, lay just against my eye. I 

 placed a microscope before this last particle, with a design to observe from 

 time to time whether it would increase in size. After 6 hours I could not find 

 that it was grown any larger; and I observed that the ends of the twigs which 

 were about 20, were laden with small transparent bubbles, whose diameters were 

 thrice as large as the extremities. 



.y Having now also observed about the twigs a sort of transparent animalcula, 

 of the same size with those bubbles, I supposed that the before-mentioned 

 round bubbles were the same with those animalcula that had taken their sta- 



