m
52 TH E CONSTRUCTION OF TIMBER
P L A T E unequal cones toward the Wood, c •, whofe firm texture gives way to them, and
leaves them their appointed figure. Into each of thefe prominences is carried one difi
i tin£t and perfeft c luf ter .wherei n all the parts are very vifible, and the VelTcls of the
different orders are moft diftififtly ften. The view here given was taken with one of
thofe wonderful glaffes made by the Perc de Torre, placed in the apparatus of the
double Microfcope, inftead of the tube. Nothing could ihevv an objetft more diftinftly
J and the reverend father deferves the higheft praife 5 whatever fate prevented
his receiving it from our Royal Society: whatever bllndnefs or malevolence there,
injured his fair fame^
'f What is obfervable farther in this noble objeit is, that the Blca, e, has ih it a regular
and connefled chain of vaft veffels, perhaps exceeding the Vafa intima in any
other Tree; and that behind thefe, in their proper place, the fubftance of the Bark,
there is alfo a regular courfe of very large Vafa propria interiora. Thefe promife virtues
in the Tree; for they contain thick juices: but they are yet unknown.
I I I . Or THE INTERIOR PROMINENCE OF THE CLUSTERS OF THE CORONA
I N T H E STAPHVLIBA.
¡ • I f j i Ni
P L A T E The common Bladder-Nut, Plate XXXI. affords the Microfcope, in this way, anobje£
t of great beauty; and, in the conftruflion of the Corona, a, the part here under
a immediate confideration; it is of proper Angularity alfo to follow, in the mind's eye,
that of the Magnolia, That circle here rifes, as there, into protuberances, in form
of obtufe cones: but, as in that Tree, there they are thruft outward into the Woodi
a b here they projed hiward, and form an indented line about the Pith, a b. Each of
thefe protuberances, as in that inftance, contains one of tliofe clufters from which
the encreafe of the Tree is made by new Branches.
b The Bark in tliis Tree alfo is delicately conftrufted, h; and in It are a feries of very
c d beautiful Vafa interiora, c. The Blea, d, is almoft nothing; a mere white line fepae
f rating the Wood from the Bark. The Wood, e, is delicate j and the Pith, f , being
formed of ihallower Blebs than in many other kinds, afford a very pleafing mixture
of double, treble, and quadruple lines; in various figures.
i j l i f l ! «
Im I V . O p THE PROJECTION INWARD OF THE CLUSTERS
I N THE P L U K N E T I A VOLUBILI S IN FOR M OF CYLINDERS.
Il
IliU
fill! J l i ' l
"i
'1
P L A T E undulated line, with the protrufion of its rifings Into a kind of cones, is not the
XXXII. higheft effort we fee in Nature, under this head. The Pluknetia, Plate XXXII. affords
us an inftance where thofe protuberances, every one of which is as it were the coat or ihell
of