Vegetable Stathh. 1 1 7 



ilem of a Vine an inftrument in fuch a man- 

 ner, that if the ftem had dilated or contra&ed 

 but the one hundredth part of an inch, it 

 would have made the end of the inftrument 

 (which was a piece of ftrong brafs-wire, 18 

 inches long) rife or fall very fenfibly about 

 one tenth of an inch; but I could not per- 

 ceive the inftrument to move, either by heat 

 or cold, a bleeding or not bleeding feafon. 

 Yet whenever it rained, the ftem dilated fo as 

 to raife the end of the inftrument or lever 

 -^ of an inch; and when the ftem was dry, 

 it fubfided as much. 



This Experiment (hews, that the fap (even 

 in the bleeding feafon) is confined in its proper 

 veiTels, and that it does not confufedly per- 

 vade every interftice of the ftem, as the rain 

 does, which entering at the perfpiring pores, 

 foaks into the interftices, and thereby dilates 

 the ftem. 



CHAP. 



