ON THE HAIRS OF PLANTS. '^,. 



kind, except now and then on the calyx of the leaves: and 

 then I have observed, that the water gets mixed with the re- 

 sinous juice of the bark, which coagulating bursts the pipes. 

 These hairs are also very different from those which are 

 fixed to the flying seeds, &c., for they resemble the coralines, 

 and the bones of fish; indeed the exact likeness of these 

 three different objects is very striking and curious. The 

 hairs which surround the buds of trees, and are generally 

 wound round them, are never inflated till wanted, and till a 

 certain time in the formation of the bud : when black (as in 

 fraxinus excelsior, juglans regia, and many others), the 

 valves are admirably seen to optn and shut in a large mag- 

 nifier, admitting and passing the water through the black 

 lines. 



That the hairs alter their forms, 1 have many proofs. Hairs alter ., 

 During great drought I have seen those, which were before ^ '"^ °'™*' 

 plain pipes, swell into divisions between the valves, changing 

 their form from that at c fig. 7» to that at y; and plainly 

 proving the shape of the valves to be as fig. at g-. On placing 

 fig.8,Pl. II, in the solar miscroscope, after great bubbling and 

 confusion, I took it out, and found the ribbon changed from 

 the appearance it has at h to that at %, It appeared as if it had 

 been before inclosed in another case, which case had melted 

 away with the heat of the sun, and left the inclosed balls and 

 spring uncovered. I have so often seen the same result from 

 repeatedly placing it, that I cannot doubt that this is the 

 case. The divisions A: A: are often found attached to different .: 



shaped instruments, ending sometimes in bells, sometimes 

 in plain pipes; contracted, or inflated, as the occasion re- 

 quires. Nothing can be more common than fig. 9, which is 

 always full of water; and fig. 10, which is found on the ga- 

 lium aparine. Extraordinary as is all I have related, it is 

 »ot more wonderful than true. I am the first person that 

 way be said really to have turned the so^ar microscope on 

 the botanical world ; is it then incredible, that I should have 

 wonders to relate ? did any person ever take a miscroscope 

 in hand without it? 



1 shall now turn to the cryptogamian plants, equally taken Description of 

 Jbr perspiration, and described by all botanists as such, the crypto- 

 Manyof Ihem resemble the powdered lichens, when they 8*™"" P^^"*=' 

 ' '^ begin 



