VOL. XXXI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 527 



branes, in which the parts of the mealy substance had been inclosed, but found 

 also that those membranes consisted entirely of a great number of very small 

 vessels, like the membranes, as they are commonly called, which surround the 

 muscles and muscular fibres in beasts and fish. 



Observations on the Seeds of Plants. By the same, N° 368, p. 200. 



Having often turned my thoughts to observe the so called membranes, in 

 which the substance of meal or flour is inclosed, like little packets in cells or 

 boxes, which is also the case of all kinds of beans, pease, wheat, barley and 

 other grain ; 1 at length, with astonishment, discovered very plainly, that what 

 I call the membranes, were endued with an unspeakable number of little holes, 

 through which, in many places, one might perceive the light ; which holes we 

 must suppose to be nothing else but little vessels, which had been torn or cut 

 off^, and which partly compose the membranes, which I call little cells, and 

 which partly serve for the production of the farina, of which there are an in- 

 finite number of particles in a pea or bean; which, as small as they are, I 

 imagine that each of those mealy particles receives its increase from a little 

 vessel, which proceeds from the aforesaid cell ; and that those vessels are im- 

 perceptible through their smalluess. 



These vessels, of which the little cells or cases mostly consist, are more easy 

 to be discovered in beans and pease, than in any sort of pulse or grain; but in 

 wheat the vessels are difficultly traced in the cells, and I have been obliged to 

 make many observations and experiments before 1 could fully satisfy myself 

 that I saw the torn or broken vessels; the reason of which is, that the little 

 vessels, of which the cells or skins of the grains of wheat are composed, are 

 exceeding thin and brittle. I have found also, on observing the vessels of 

 which the cells are composed, that several of the globules in wheat were broken 

 in pieces in the operation ; and that in one of those single globules, there were 

 other small globules inclosed. I have likewise observed that the mem- 

 branes, or little cells, in barley, in which the globules or parcels of the 

 meal are shut up, and receive their increase, are thicker and stronger than 

 those of wheat. 



Though I conclude, that almost all seeds and grains, as well as their mem- 

 branes or skins, are o^ one and the same texture and configuration, yet for 

 experiment sake, I took a large almond, and cut off several thin slices from it, 

 and dug out of those slices, as well as I could, the substance that lay in the 

 little cells, and viewing them as nicely as possible with a microscope, I observed 

 that those cells, in which the oil of the almond was for the most part con 

 tained, consisted also of nothing but little vessels. 



