VOL. XXIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 67 



represented the long roots, with their small twigs and branches against the sides 

 of the tube. 



Afterwards I observed but very little change in the plant for some days; the 

 reason of which I suppose to be that all the moisture was exhausted by the 

 plant; wherefore, pouring a little more rain-water on the top of the sand, the 

 plant grew larger, insomuch that in 5 weeks time it was got almost to the upper- 

 most cork de; and the roots also were spread into more branches, and had not 

 only extended themselves to the lower cork, but one little root had insinuated 

 itself between the cork and the glass, and had there shot forth another 

 branch. 



As the external membranes of these seeds are very thick and hard, and that 

 part of the tender plant, which nature has designed for a tree, is not able to 

 bore through it, or burst it asunder, as happens in the plants of nuts, almonds, 

 peaches, &c. therefore this plant does not spring up in a right line through the 

 seed or kernel, but out of its sides, as seen in fig. 5, between d and p, and 

 fig. 8. between n and o. 



After one of these seeds had lain near 6 weeks shut up in the glass-tube, and 

 grown in proportion to that time, I observed that one of its leaves was withered 

 or corrupted; on which I opened both the corks, and poured out the sand, 

 which being very dry came away easily, but a small branch of the root had so 

 insinuated itself into the cork, that it could not be separated without violence. 



Fig. 8, iKLMN represents the said whole plant, of which lmn shows the 

 body, andM the 3 leaves at the top, it had put forth; iKL is the root, with its 

 twigs and branches; lno the seed, or kernel, still surrounded with its mem- 

 branes; and lastly, ip shows the cork that stopped the bottom of the tube, 

 with the root sticking to it. 



Now if we renew the comparison, which I have formerly made, between the 

 animalcula in semine masculine, and these plants ; though these animalcula are 

 a million times smaller than a plant in an orange-kernel ; and though we can- 

 not make our observations of the growth and increase from time to time, of 

 the said animalcula in their mother's matrix; yet we may certainly conclude, 

 that the laws which the wise Creator of all things has followed in the production 

 of both animate and inanimate creatures, are homogeneous and uniform; and 

 that as the earth is the common matrix of plants, so is the tuba fallopiana in 

 most of those animals that are formed ex semine masculino; for, as the animals 

 in the matrix receive their nourishment and increase by a string, till they come 

 into the air and world, so are all seeds, at least as far as we know, supported 

 and nourished by a little string; and the seeds thrown into the earth do again, 

 by the same string, convey nourishment to the seed or kernel. 



