652 Microscopical Essays. 



CHAP. IX. 



On the Organization or Construction of Timber, 

 as viewed by the mlcroscope. 



THE fubjecl: of the following chapter opens an extenfive 

 field of obfervation to the naturalift, in which the labour of 

 a life may be well employed : it is a branch where the obferver 

 will find the microfcope of continual ufe,and without which he 

 will fcarce be able to form any juft idea of the organization of 

 trees and plants, of the variations in the difpofition, the number, 

 nature, and offices of the feveral parts thereof. 



Malphigi, Grew, Duhamel, Hill, Bonnet, and Be Sauffure, 

 are almofl the only writers who have treated on this fubjecl: ; and 

 if we confider the imperfection of the inrlruments ufed by fome 

 in thofe anatomical refearches, and the little attention paid by 

 the reft to the advantages their favorite purfuits might have de- 

 rived from the ufe of the microfcope and the di {feeling knife, we 

 have rather more to wonder at what has been done, than at what 

 remains to be performed. One reafon that our knowledge of the 

 fubjecl; of this chapter is fo circumfcribed, is the general ipatten- 

 4 tion 



