VOL. XXIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 63 



of fibres, that nature uses in the contexture of such a small string; whence I 

 was led to think that those long fibres, represented by qw, were designed to 

 add a stiffness and solidity to the outer menmbrane, for the better defence of the 

 internal vessels. I have often observed that the outmost membrane rstv com- 

 pressed the string so closely, that there remained little space between them. In 

 the said figure xyz represent that membrane which surrounds the kernel or 

 seed and the plant ; and all the membranes are very thin, particularly the in- 

 most of them. Upon cutting such a seed or kernel across, you would think the 

 particles of which it is composed to be nothing but irregular globules squeezed 

 or compressed close together. 



AB, fig. 22, represent such a seed divested of its membranes, and which 

 seemed to have but one plant within it ; whereas I have often seen under the 

 membranes another small plant, which lay as if it were squeezed into the sub- 

 stance of the seed, and so is not to be seen till the seed be f-tripped of its mem- 

 branes, contrary to those of nuts, peaches, almonds, &c. which where there is 

 two of them, lie entire and distinct in their proper membranes, as I hinted 

 before. I have likewise observed, under the membrane of an orange-kernel, 

 three distinct seeds, with their plants, but some of them indeed much larger 

 than the others. These seeds, with their inclosed plants, are easily divided into 

 two lobes, or distinct parts, insomuch that they seem not to have been united, 

 but only where the small plant lies ; so that the whole kernel, ab, was framed 

 by nature for no other use, in my opinion, but to nourish the tender plant 

 within, till it be able to stand alone, and draw its subsistence from the earth 

 about it. 



Having split the seed ab into two parts, one of which is represented by 

 CDEF, fig. 23, together with part of the plant, which would have become a 

 tree sticking close to it, the plant itself may be seen at c, no larger than a grain 

 of sand to the naked eye. The counterpart of the said kernel is represented 

 by GHiK, fig. 24, and g the little pit or bed of the plant; and in the said figure 

 between h and k, the cavity in which the second seed also lay, as likewise at 

 DP in fig. 23. 



This sight was wholly new to me, though I had dissected many sorts of seeds 

 before; viz. to see in the middle of one seed or kernel, another complete and 

 perfect seed; especially when I considered that from the vessels arising out of 

 the string, and dispersing themselves through the membranes, both the kernel 

 and plant are produced; and yet these same vessels must insinuate themselves 

 into the very heart of the first seed, before they can produce a second seed and 

 plant within it. 



