6o 
VEGETABLE STRUCTURE. 
What is the ahfolute courfe of thcfe Clufters in a Fibre at its extreme 
termination, we have feen 5 they are continued in arches round that ex- 
tremity, returning upon theiiifelves, as has been reprefented Plate II. Figures 
10, II, and 12. It remains to find in what manner they terminate at the 
top of the Fibre, where it is joined to the Root, To know this we muft 
take off the Fibre /', from the body of the Root g, at the part /6, not 
hrait down tranfverfely thro ; but by an arched ftroke, fuch as is marked 
by the dotted Line / k. It will be' more proper to cut out an entire Fi- 
bre than one which is fpllt, for this obfervation ; but the divided piece of 
the Root 3-3, (hews exactly where the knife is to pafs. Many trials will 
fail ; for it is clfential to cut juft under the arch made by the Flefli of the 
Fibre, witliout wounding the Vefl'els thcmfelves ; but with attention it may 
be executed ; and if a Root be chofen for the purpofe which has been a 
little while macerated in water, if fome fragments of the Flefli remain on 
the top, a fmall pencil working in water, will get them off, and fliew the 
courfe of the Velfels entire. We fhall thus find that the conic Clufters 
of the Fibre not only do not run into the body of the Root, but that 
they never enter the Flefli at all ; they return upon thcmfelves in fo mvtny 
arches, juft within the vault e, made by the Flefli of the Fibre, and con^ 
flitute, as it were, another difcontinued fliell within that, furrounding every 
where the Pith. At Fig. 34. is reprefented the head of a Fibre, taken 
from a Root which hal been fome fmall time macerated in water, in which 
the fix broad and arched lines are the conic Clufters preferved entire. 
We fliall fee in the fucceeding chapters, that thefe Clufters of Velfels 
are, in the fame manner, difeontinuous between the Root and Stalks : but 
there is yet one ob'ervation which the prefent fedion of the Root offers, 
and which muft properly find its place here. 
Altho’ the conic Clufters in the Fibre are not continuations of thofe in 
the body of the Root, there yet is a communication between them ; and- 
perhaps what thus is feen in the perfed Fibre, as a communication only, 
was originally the fource of thofe Velfels. 
On cutting off a very thin dice of the part of the Root, Fig. 33. e e e, 
which is the mafs of the Flefli of the Plant, between the Root and Fibre, 
and laying it in water before the Double Microfeope, we perceive certain 
thick white lines, running a courfe contrary to that of the Vefl'els which 
compofe the Flefli, and interwoven, as it were, among them j befide the 
multitude of thefe threads which muft have been cut afunder in various 
angles, we fcldom fail to fee ten or twelve very confpicuous and entire, in 
6 the 
