VOL. XLIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 81 



quite transparent ; and, from thence to the bottom, the ribs are hairy. This 

 vase contains a seed, which is like a pestle standing in a mortar : the pestle is 

 loose, in an octagonal case ; but the narrowness of the mouth of this case hinders 

 the pestle's being drawn out, because its extremity within is round and bulky. 

 From its upper end arise 5 spiculated aristae, whose little thorns are directed up- 

 wards, and are thereby prepared to cause the seed to recede from any thing that 

 might injure it on being touched ; and the basin, from which the aristas rise, i» 

 of a fine green colour. They are of a shining brown. 



The 2d specimen is that of the angelica. It is one of the most fragrant and 

 agreeable seeds, for its smell, in the world. When the husk is pulled off, the 

 nucleus appears of a brownish colour, and its shape is elliptical. By the help of 

 the microscope, we know what produces that charming smell, being a fine am 

 ber-coloured gum, which appears in ridges disposed alternately, with others of a 

 brownish colour, in a longitudinal direction all over the nucleus. What appears 

 white, on the flat side, is a theca, which receives a very minute stilus from the 

 pedicle that supports it. 



The 3d is that seed which is vulgarly called grains of paradise. This seed, 

 though promising from its aspect but very little that is curious, being only a 

 brown irregular seed with flats and angles, and having an apex like the mouth of 

 a purse drawn up with a string ; yet, when dissected, nothing can produce a 

 more beautiful appearance. In a longitudinal section, you see first the edge of 

 the brown cortex ; next to that, a black pitchy substance : and within that an 

 exceedingly white radiated matter, which looks like a fine white salt, and is pro- 

 bably a mixture of a volatile pungent salt with a farinaceous substance : the radi- 

 ation seems to confirm this opinion ; for if it were only a farina, it could have no 

 such appearance, and so does its exceedingly sharp taste. But the most remark- 

 able and curious part of this seed, is a little piece of camphor, exactly shaped like 

 a common vinegar crewet, having a round bottom, and a long taper heck. This 

 is the constant form in hundreds of these seeds he has cut. These curious ap- 

 pearances were probably never observed before. 



The next seed is that of the great maple-tree. It consists of a pod and its wing : 

 two of these grow on a foot-stalk with the pods together, which makes them re- 

 semble the body of an insect with a pair of expanded wings. The wings are 

 finely vasculated, and the pod is lined with fine silky down, which contains a 

 round compact pellet covered with a brown membrane, that sticks very close to 

 it. When this is peeled off, instead of discovering a kernel, as in other seeds, 

 an entire green plant appears to be folded up in a most surprising manner, whose 

 pedicle is about -J- of an inch long, and its seminal leaves about 4 each ; between 

 which the germina of the next pair of leaves are barely visible to the naked eye, 

 but plain with a microscope. This discovery gave great pleasure, believing him- 



VOL. IX. M 



