32 
MEMOIR OF SWAMMERDAM. 
inquiry nearly at the same time, and each of the 
three philosophers shewed that the dust on the lower 
surface of the leaves consists of an aggregation of 
small capsules, each surrounded by a jointed elastic 
ring, by the contraction and elasticity of which the 
capsules, when arrived at maturity, are opened with 
a spring, and the seeds (sporules) scattered to a dis- 
tance ; the whole exhibiting, Swammerdam remarks, 
the most wonderful construction that the mind of man 
can imagine, and so eminently displaying the con- 
trivance, order, providence, and wisdom of the great 
Author of all things, that, perhaps, a more striking 
specimen of these His adorable perfections is not to 
be found in any other part of the visible creation. 
The size of the capsules, he states, is so minute that 
they are almost invisible to the naked eye, it being 
scarcely possible to make a dot on paper, with the 
finest pencil, of so small dimensions. In each of these 
capsules he reckoned about forty-one seeds, which 
are, of course, invisible to the unassisted eye ; to 
examine them, he fixed some to a hair of his head, 
and, in comparison, the hair appeared like the mast 
of a first-rate man-of-war ! He believes that there 
are more than sixty capsules in each little cluster ; 
consequently, at a very low calculation, every one 
of the latter will contain 2400 seeds. The reflec- 
tions ■with which our author concludes his remarks 
on this subject we shall here subjoin, both on ac- 
count of their intrinsic value, and as an example 
of that strain of sentiment and devotional feeling 
which pervades his writings. “ You may hence con- 
