Of Vegetables. 227 
It is evident on catting a young apricock, and then 
with a fharp razor {having off a thin flice, and viewing it 
through the microfcope, that at firft the ground of the 
ftone is a diftindl and foft parenchyma, compofed of blad¬ 
ders, as the pulp itfelf is,which bladders, as they harden 
into a ftone, fill up and difappear. 
This parenchyma takes its rife from the pith, as the 
pulp does from the bark, and compofes the greateft part 
of the ftone; its infide is lined all over with a thin fkin, 
covering the feed branch on its firft entrance into the 
hollow of the ftone; which fkin is alfo compofed of ex- 
quifitely fmall bladders, by which means it foon becomes 
a very hard and dry body. 
The ftone being made hard and dry, could never be 
fufficiently foftened (to give paffage for the vegetation of 
the feed) by lying under ground, did it not eafily cleave 
in two; for which purpofe the fkin of the fruit is imme¬ 
diately concerned \ for in a tranfverfe flice of a young 
apricock, if it be cut with a fharp knife, this fkin may 
be feen (when applied to the microfcope) fairly doubled 
inwards from the two lips a b, a b, of the fruit, fig. 443 
and 444- and from thence continued through the pulp 
and ftone itfelf into the hollow thereof, where it meets 
and is united with the lining before-mentioned ; and as 
it conduces towards the drying of the ftone, fo alfo it 
renders it cleaveable in that part where it runs through it. 
Nature having thus provided a convenient uterus, her 
next care is about the membranes of the foetus, thefe are 
three apparently dlftinct, and in many refpedts different 
from each other. 
The firft of thefe, fig. 443. reprefents a tranfverfe flice 
of a young apricock near the lower end, {hewing the 
duplicature of the fkin half way through the ftone. Fig. 
444. a tranfverfe flice cut through the upper end, (hewing, 
2 the 
