E X P L A I N E D BY THE MICROSCOPE.
2 J
II
nature and office of much more importance than both. At h is ihewn the fubftance Î>LATE
o f the Ring or Circle, the immediate matter of the Corona j and at H the clufters of
velTels which at their egrefs from the tree are to form Branches : this matter of the ~h
Corona always follows out in quantity enough to cloath them. / /
One clufter, feparated from the Ring, Is reprefented more enlarged at Fig. 3. In this Fig.
w e palpably fee the fubftance of the Blea and the Wood, and yet more evidently the
veffcls of that latter part. At a the loofe and open texture of the Blea cannot be mif^ a
taken by any who are at all accuflomed to thefe obfervations ; at b the clofer ftrudure of b
the wood is perfeÛly difclofed : and at i a part of the fame wood furrounding the c
great velTels ; but of a fofter fubftance -than the other, that it may not be capable of
preflïng thofe veflels, on whofe free courfe the growth of the whole Shoot, to arife
f r om this clufter, perfeâly depends. At d the great veflels themfelves are ihewn ^
not at all exaggerated by fraud or fancy, or the rage of fyftem. It is juft fo they
appear, and will always appear j even in the herbaceous Celandine; as well as in the
arborefcent Parrot Wood.
A t Fig. 4. is given alfo an enlarged view of the fubftance of thë Corona -, in whichj Fig. 4.
as in all juft opinions, the greater power we employ to examine, the more light is
thrown upon the fubjeâ:. If it had been poflîble before to doubt the nature of that
circle J under this advantage of greater magnifying, it is not ; the ftrudure of Rind
and Bark are fo di f t ind in it, that an accuftomed eye would declare at once, that it
was a view of thofe two parts taken from fome very good fubjeft which he had before
h im : they would appear the abfolute Rind and Bark of a Shoot, not their embryo's
in the Corona.
On the Corona and its Clufters, (for in Nature they are never feparated,) on this
complex part depends that incommunicable property of Vegetables, that they can be
produced entire from every piece. In animals, even where bounteous Nature has
given the wonderful advantage of a re-produifiion of parts, ftill it is but the part
w h i c h was loft that can be fo produced. The leg of â crab being broken off, a new
one grows in its place; but then it is only a leg. Nay, even in Spalanzani's great
experiment of the j aw of the Newt , when that part is cut away, 'tis that part and no
more that grows again : but in Vegetables the whole arifes from a part ; and that from
every part cut off tranfverfely, with almoft equal eafe.
T h e f e Clufters follow the courfe of the other portions of the Tree ; they are therefore
every where : they are always capable of growing ; and their growth, even in a
cutting o f the fmalleft twig, cannot produce a leaf or any other part of a Vegetablé
alone, but muft afford the whole} for they are complete bodies, and the whole is
there, waiting only for the means of extenfion, fufficient nouriihment.
' T i s hence in all trees Shoots thruft forward from the Crowns and fides of Branches
in Spring, and after Midfummer, the feafons when the veffels are moft filled -, and hencc
that at all feafons, under fufficient ûielter and defence. Branches rife from the naked
cuttings, under the Gardener's care. That they do not rife with equal eafe and
rcadinefs from all kinds of trees is owing merely to the difference of conftruition in
G thefe