410 
ON THE ANATOMY OF DRUGS. 
Schematisme or Texture of CorJc^ and of the Cells and Pores of some other such 
Frothy Bodies f shows, in an interesting way, the dependence of one discovery 
upon another, and how the most painstaking and laborious researches may miss 
a right conclusion, from the lack of one little item of knowledge which it may 
take another century to supply. The descriptions of the appearances of both trans- 
verse and longitudinal sections of cork are elaborate and the figures accurate; the 
inferences drawn are as right as it was possible they could be without the know¬ 
ledge of the true nature and functions of the vegetable cell. Cowhage is another 
substance to which he seems to have given particular attention. Its botanical 
origin was well known to him, and its microscopical appearance is correctly 
figured. As to its peculiar irritating effects upon the skin, he regards it in the 
same category as the stings of insects or nettles, concluding that the cells or 
“canes” being hollow, they “might have some caustic part sticking on them 
or residing within them,” and that this “ might be dissolved and mixed with 
the ambient juices” of the places where the fibres penetrated, “and the tender 
parts adjoining become as it were corroded by it.” 
sri.AVe shall perhaps illustrate our author most satisfactorily by quoting one of 
his chapters entire; that on Rosemary-leaves is shortest, and will therefore best 
suit our purpose. 
Observ. xxiv. Of the Surfaces of Rosemary, and other leaves. 
“ This which is delineated within the circle of the fecond Figure, is a fmall part of the 
back or under fide of a leaf of Rofemary, which I did not therefore make choice of, becaufe 
it had anything peculiar which was not obfeivable with 2 , Microfcope in feveral other Plants, 
but becaufe it exhibits at one view— 
“ Firft, a smooth and (hining furface, which is a part of the upper fide of the leaf, that 
by a kind of hem or doubling of the leaf appears on this fide. There are multitudes of 
leaves, whofe furfaces are like this fmooth, and as it were quilted, which look like a curious 
quilted bagg of green Silk, or like a Bladder, or fome fuch pliable tranfparent fubftance, 
full fluffed out with a green juice or liquor ; the furface of Rue, or Herbgrass, is polifh’d, 
and all over indented, or pitted, like the Silk-worm’s Egg, which I fhall anon defcribe ; 
the fmooth furfaces of other Plants are otherwife quilted. Nature in this, as it were, ex- 
preffing her Needle-work, or imbroidery. 
“ Next a downy or bufhy furface, fuch as is all the under fide almoft, appearing through 
the Microfcope much like a thicket of bufires, and with this kind of Down or Hair the 
leaves and ftalks of multitudes of Vegetables are covered ; and there feems to as great 
a variety in the fhape, bulk, and manner of the growing of thefe fecundary plants, as I 
may call them (they being, as it w'ere, a Plant growing out of a Plant, or fomewhat like 
the hairs of Animals) as there is to be found amongft fmall fhrubs that compofe bufhes ; 
but for the moft part, they confift of small tranfparent parts, fome of which grow in the 
fhape of fmall Needles or Bodkins, as on the ThifUe, Cowag-ecod and Nettle; others in 
the form of Cat’s claws, as in Gliders, the beards of Barley, the edges of feveral forts of 
Grafs and Reeds, &c. in other, as Coltsfoot, Rofe-campion, Aps, Poplar, Willow, and 
almoft all other downy Plants, they grow in the form of bufhes very much diverfify’d in 
each particular Plant. That which I have before in the 19 th Obfervation noted on Rofe- 
leaves, is of a quite differing kind, and feems indeed a real Vegetable, diftindt from the 
leaf. 
“Thirdly, among thefe fmall buflies are obfervable an infinite company of fmall round 
Balls, exaftly Globular, and very much refembling Pearls, of thefe there may be multitudes 
obferv’d in Sage, and feveral other Plants, which I fuppofe was the reafon why Athanafius 
Kircher fuppofed them to be all cover’d with Spider’s Eggs, or young Spiders, which indeed 
is nothing elfe but fome kind of gummous exfudation, which is always much of the same 
bignefs. At firfi: fight of thefe I confefs, I imagin’d that they might have been fome kind 
of 77iafrices, or nourifhing receptacles for fome fmall InseCt, juft as I have found Oak-apples, 
and multitudes of fuch other large excrefcencies on the leaves and other parts of Trees and 
fhrubs to be for Flyes, and divers other Infects, but obferving them to be there all the year, 
and fcarce at all to change their magnitude, that conjefture feem’d not fo probable. But 
