282 PHM-OSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1 706. 



tree is mostly of a triangular figure, and not above the 12th part of an inch 

 where it is broadest. I took a little of it, and putting it into a clean paper, 

 bruised it with a hammer, and after that into a little glass phial, then poured 

 some fair rain-water on it, till the water stood half an inch above the seed. 

 After the seed had been infused in the water some hours, I took a little of the 

 water, and mixed it with my blood, as it dropped from my finger by pricking 

 with a needle, and immediately observed that the blood was extremely coagu- 

 lated. But as blood, when mixed with common water, keeps its clear red 

 colour, and a great many globules, which are the cause of its redness, being 

 dissolved in the water, they so incorporate themselves with it, that you can 

 distinguish none of them from the water itself, which thereby acquires a fine 

 crimson colour : the appearance was quite otherwise with the blood that was 

 mixed with the seed water ; for its particles being coagulated, assumed a blackish 

 or dirty colour : and though I observed a very great number of blood globules 

 that were not coagulated, yet they all lay like stiff particles; neither could I 

 perceive that one of them was dissolved, or united to the water ; so that not 

 the least redness, that looked like blood, was communicated to the water, 

 neither did there break forth the least air bubble out of the mingled liquor. I 

 took also a little of the said water, that was inclinable to a reddish colour, and 

 dropped some of it on six several places of a glass plate, in order to observe 

 what salt particles might be coagulated in the exhaled liquor. I observed in the 

 liquor, most of which evaporated, that besides the salt particles, there remained 

 a great deal of a coagulated matter, in which I could discover no figure. I per- 

 ceived likewise abundance of exceedingly small salt particles, which were mostly 

 of an exact square figure, and some few were oblongs, with four right angles ; 

 some of those salt particles were broad in the middle, and pointed at both ends ; 

 but where a great many of them were coagulated together, their figures were 

 irregular. I observed likewise, that where the water had lain a little time to- 

 gether, it was not altogether exhaled, but left a balsamic matter behind it. I 

 put some of the said seed into water, in order to soften its skin, that I might 

 dissect it the easier ; and having accordingly opened several of them, I took 

 out the plant, in which, though it was no larger than a small grain of sand, I 

 could perceive two leaves, and that part of it which was to be the root and body. 

 It was also affirmed, that the oil of singelan, or singely, is esteemed a good 

 softener, and is given to lying-in women, and other persons that are in pain, 

 also to children, with or without other ingredients. 



The seed is about the size of the euwane seed, but something longer. I had 

 also some few other seeds, named cancie ; this seed is used by the Mahometans, 

 being ground small and infused in water, which will make them as drunk as 



