Of Vegetables. 229 
only vifible in a tranfverfe (lice, and that not without a 
microfcope ; but when grown a little wider, may be feen 
if the membrane be carefully cut lengthwife, at which 
time it is dilated into two oval cavities, e f, fig. 446. 
one at each end, into which a moft pure lympha con¬ 
tinually owzeth, and is therein referved for the ncurifh- 
ment of the feed, and alfo paffes freely from one to the 
other. 
A few days after this, the inmoft membrane begins to 
appear like a foft bud growing out of the upper cavity, 
being joined to its lower end by a fhort and tender ftalk; 
from whence it is produced into a conical oval figure, 
anfwerable to that marked g in the cavity, fig. 447. This 
membrane, though foft and full of fap, is compofed of 
bladders, three hundred times fmaller than thofe of the 
middlemoft, by which means the feed is fo well guarded, 
as not to be fupplied with any other part of the lympha 
but the pureft, and that only but by flow degrees. 
If with a fteady hand this membrane be pulled very 
gently upwards, it will draw a fmall tranfparent firing 
after it to the bottom of the middle membrane ; this laid 
firing, though for the greater part parenchymous, is 
neverthelcfs llrengthened with fome lignous fibres, which 
feem to be a portion of thofe that are inofculated at the 
bottom of the outer membrane, and thence produced 
through the middlemoft under the channel which joins 
the two oval cavities, till at lafl they break forth into the 
upper cavity, where they form this inner membrane, 
which is originally as entire as the middlemoft; but as it 
increafes, becomes a little hollow near the cone, and the 
aforefaid lignous fibres fetching their compafs from the 
bafe, fhoot forth into the cone, and make a very fmall 
node therein, for the flrft eflay towards the generation of 
the feed, as at h, fig. 448. which are fpun out to the ut- 
Q, 3 moft 
