First, all the parts of it seem’d not at all _dislocated_, or alter’d from
their natural Position, whil’st they were Wood, but the whole piece
retain’d the exact shape of Wood, having many of the conspicuous pores of
wood still remaining pores, and shewing a manifest difference visible
enough between the grain of the Wood and that of the bark, especially when
any side of it was cut smooth and polite; for then it appear’d to have a
very lovely grain, like that of some curious close Wood.
Next (it resembled Wood) in that all the smaller and (if I may so call
those which are onely visible with a good magnifying Glass) _Microscopical_
pores of it appear (both when the substance is cut and polish’d
_transversly_ and _parallel_ to the pores of it) perfectly like the
_Microscopical_ pores of several kinds of Wood, especially like and equal
to those of several sorts of rotten Wood which I have since observ’d,
retaining both the shape, position and magnitude of such pores. It was
differing from Wood:
First; in _weight_, being to common water as 3¼ to 1. whereas there are few
of our _English_ Woods, that when very dry are found to be full as heavie
as water.
Secondly, in _hardness_, being very neer as hard as a Flint; and in some
places of it also resembling the grain of a Flint: and, like it, it would
very readily cut Glass, and would not without difficulty, especially in
some parts of it, be scratch’d by a black hard Flint: It would also as
readily strike fire against a Steel, or against a Flint, as any common
Flint.
Thirdly, in the _closeness_ of it, for though all the _Microscopical_ pores
of this _petrify’d_ substance were very conspicuous in one position, yet by
altering that position of the polish’d surface to the light, it was also
manifest, that those pores appear’d darker then the rest of the body, onely
because they were fill’d up with a more duskie substance, and not because
they were hollow.
Fourthly, in its _incombustibleness_, in that it would not burn in the
fire; nay, though I kept it a good while red-hot in the flame of a Lamp,
made very _intense_ by the blast of a small Pipe, and a large Charcoal, yet
it seem’d not at all to have diminish’d its extension; but only I found it
to have chang’d its colour, and to appear of a more dark and duskie brown
colour; nor could I perceive that those parts which seem’d to have been
Wood at first, were any thing wasted, but the parts appear’d as solid and
close as before. It was further observable also, that as it did not consume
like Wood, so neither did it crack and flie like a Flint, or such like hard
Stone, nor was it long before it appear’d red-hot.
Fifthly, in its _dissolubleness_; for putting some drops of distill’d
_Vinegar_ upon the Stone, I found it presently to yield very many Bubbles,
just like those which may be observ’d in spirit of _Vinegar_ when it
corrodes _corals_, though perhaps many of those small Bubbles might proceed
from some small parcels of Air which were driven out of the pores of this
_petrify’d_ substance by the insinuating liquid _menstruum_.
Sixthly, in its _rigidness_, and _friability_, being not at all flexible
but brittle like a Flint, insomuch that I could with one knock of a Hammer
break off a piece of it, and with a few more, reduce that into a pretty
fine powder.
Seventhly, it seem’d also very differing from Wood to the _touch_,
_feeling_ more cold then Wood usually does, and much like other close
stones and Minerals.
The Reasons of all which _Phænomena_ seem to be,
That _petrify’d_ Wood having lain in some place where it was well soak’d
with _petrifying_ water (that is, such a water as is well _impregnated_
with stony and earthy particles) did by degrees separate, either by
straining and _filtration_, or perhaps, by _precipitation_, _cohesion_ or
_coagulation_, abundance of stony particles from the permeating water,
which stony particles, being by means of the fluid _vehicle_ convey’d, not
onely into the _Microscopical_ pores, and so perfectly stopping them up, but
also into the pores or _interstitia_, which may, perhaps, be even in the
texture or _Schematisme_ of that part of the Wood, which, through the
_Microscope_, appears most solid, do thereby so augment the weight of the
Wood, as to make it above three times heavier then water, and perhaps, six
times as heavie as it was when Wood.
Next, they thereby so lock up and fetter the parts of the Wood, that the
fire cannot easily make them flie away, but the action of the fire upon
them is onely able to _Char_ those parts, as it were, like a piece of Wood,
if it be clos’d very fast up in Clay, and kept a good while red-hot in the
fire, will by the heat of the fire be charr’d and not consum’d, which may,
perhaps, also be somewhat of the cause, why the _petrify’d_ substance
appear’d of a dark brown colour after it had been burnt.
By this _intrusion_ of the _petrifying_ particles, this substance also
becomes hard and _friable_; for the smaller pores of the Wood being
perfectly wedg’d, and stuft up with those stony particles, the small parts
of the Wood have no places or pores into which they may slide upon bending,
and consequently little or no flexion or yielding at all can be caus’d in
such a substance.
The remaining particles likewise of the Wood among the stony particles, may
keep them from cracking and flying when put into the fire, as they are very
apt to do in a Flint.
Nor is Wood the onely substance that may by this kind of _transmutation_ be
chang’d into stone; for I my self have seen and examin’d very many kinds of
substances, and among very credible Authours, we may meet with Histories of
such _Metamorphoses_ wrought almost on all kind of substances, both
_Vegetable_ and _Animal_, which Histories, it is not my business at
present, either to relate, or _epitomise_, but only to set down some
Observation I lately made on several kind of _petrify’d_ Shels, found about
_Keinsham_, which lies within four or five miles of _Bristol_, which are
commonly call’d _Serpentine-stones._
Examining several of these very curiously figur’d bodies (which are
commonly thought to be Stones form’d by some extraordinary _Plastick
virtue_ _latent_ in the Earth it self) I took notice of these particulars:
First, that these figured bodies, or stones, were of very differing
substances, as to hardness: some of Clay, some Marle, some soft Stone,
almost of the hardness of those soft stones which Masons call Fire-stone,
others as hard as Portland stone, others as hard as Marble, and some as
hard as a Flint or Crystal.
Next, they were of very differing substances as to transparency and colour;
some white, some almost black, some brown, some Metalline, or like
Marchasites; some transparent like white Marble, others like flaw’d
Crystal, some gray, some of divers colours; some radiated like those long
_petrify’d drops_, which are commonly found at the _Peak_, and in other
_subterraneous caverns_, which have a kind of pith in the middle.
Thirdly, that they were very different as to the manner of their outward
figuration; for some of them seem’d to have been the substance that had
fill’d the Shell of some kind of Shel-fish; others, to have been the
substance that had contain’d or enwrapp’d one of those Shels, on both
which, the perfect impression either of the inside or outside of such
Shells seem’d to be left, but for the most part, those impressions seem’d
to be made by an imperfect or broken Shell, the great end or mouth of the
Shell being always wanting, and oftentimes the little end, and sometimes
half, and in some there were impressions, just as if there had been holes
broken in the figurating, imprinting or moulding Shell; some of them seem’d
to be made by such a Shell very much brused or flaw’d, insomuch that one
would verily have thought that very figur’d stone had been broken or brused
whilst a gelly, as ’twere, and so hardned, but within in the grain of the
stone, there appear’d not the least sign of any such bruse or breaking, but
onely on the very uttermost superficies.
Fourthly, they were very different, as to their outward covering, some
having the perfect Shell, both in figure, colour, and substance, sticking
on upon its surface, and adhering to it, but might very easily be separated
from it, and like other common _Cockle_ or _Scolop-shels_, which some of
them most accurately resembled, were very dissoluble in common _Vinegar_,
others of them, especially those _Serpentine_, or _Helical stones_ were
cover’d or retained the shining or Pearl-colour’d substance of the inside
of a Shel, which substance, on some parts of them, was exceeding thin, and
might very easily be rubbed off; on other parts it was pretty thick, and
retained a white coat, or flaky substance on the top, just like the
outsides of such Shells; some of them had very large pieces of the Shell
very plainly sticking on to them, which were easily to be broken or flaked
off by degrees: they likewise, some of them retain’d all along the surface
of them very pretty kind of _sutures_, such as are observ’d in the skulls
of several kinds of living creatures, which _sutures_ were most curiously
shap’d in the manner of leaves, and every one of them in the same Shell,
exactly one like another, which I was able to discover plainly enough with
my naked eye, but more perfectly and distinctly with my _Microscope_; all
these sutures, by breaking some of these stones, I found to be the
_termini_, or boundings of certain _diaphragms_, or partitions, which
seem’d to divide the cavity of the Shell into a multitude of very
proportionate and regular _cells_ or _caverns_, these _Diaphragms_, in many
of them, I found very perfect and compleat, of a very distinct substance
from that which fill’d the cavities, and exactly of the same kind with that
which covered the outside, being for the most part whitish, or
_mother of pearl_ colour’d.
As for the cavities between those _Diaphragms_, I found some of them fill’d
with Marle, and others with several kinds of stones, others, for the most
part hollow, onely the whole cavity was usually covered over with a kind of
_tartareous petrify’d_ substance, which stuck about the sides, and was
there shot into very curious regular Figures, just as _Tartar_, or other
dissolv’d Salts are observ’d to stick and _crystallize_ about the sides of
the containing Vessels; or like those little _Diamants_ which I before
observed to have covered the vaulted cavity of a Flint; others had these
cavities all lin’d with a kind of _metalline_ or _marchasite-like_
substance, which with a _Microscope_ I could as plainly see most curiously
and regularly figured, as I had done those in a Flint.
From all which, and several other particulars which I observ’d, I cannot
but think, that all these, and most other kinds of stony bodies which are
found thus strangely figured, do owe their formation and figuration, not to
any kind of _Plastick virtue_ inherent in the earth, but to the Shells of
certain Shel-fishes, which, either by some Deluge, Inundation, Earthquake,
or some such other means, came to be thrown to that place, and there to be
fill’d with some kind of Mudd or Clay, or _petrifying_ Water, or some other
substance, which in tract of time has been settled together and hardned in
those shelly moulds into those shaped substances we now find them; that the
great and thin end of these Shells by that Earthquake, or what ever other
extraordinary cause it was that brought them thither, was broken off; and
that many others were otherwise broken, bruised and disfigured; that these
Shells which are thus _spirallied_ and separated with _Diaphragmes_, were
some kind of _Nautili_ or _Porcelane shells_; and that others were shells
of _Cockles_, _Muscles_, _Periwincles_, _Scolops_, &c. of various sorts;
that these Shells in many, from the particular nature of the containing or
enclos’d Earth, or some other cause, have in tract of time rotted and
mouldred away, and onely left their impressions, both on the containing and
contained substances; and so left them pretty loose one within another, so
that they may be easily separated by a knock or two of a Hammer. That
others of these Shells, according to the nature of the substances adjacent
to them, have, by a long continuance in that posture, been _petrify’d_ and
turn’d into the nature of stone, just as I even now observ’d several sorts
of Wood to be. That oftentimes the Shell may be found with one kind of
substance within, and quite another without; having, perhaps, been fill’d
in one place, and afterwards translated to another, which I have very
frequently observ’d in _Cockle_, _Muscle_, _Periwincle_, and other shells,
which I have found by the Sea side. Nay, further, that some parts of the
same Shell may be fill’d in one place, and some other caverns in another,
and others in a third, or a fourth, or a fifth place, for so many differing
substances have I found in one of these _petrify’d_ Shells, and perhaps all
these differing from the encompassing earth or stone; the means how all
which varieties may be caus’d, I think, will not be difficult to conceive,
to any one that has taken notice of those Shells, which are commonly found
on the Sea shore: And he that shall throughly examine several kinds of such
curiously form’d stones, will (I am very apt to think) find reason to
suppose their generation or formation to be ascribable to some such
accidents as I have mention’d, and not to any _Plastick virtue_: For it
seems to me quite contrary to the infinite prudence of Nature, which is
observable in all its works and productions, to design every thing to a
determinate end, and for the attaining of that end, makes use of such ways
as are (as farr as the knowledge of man has yet been able to reach)
altogether consonant, and most agreeable to man’s reason, and of no way or
means that does contradict, or is contrary to humane Ratiocination; whence
it has a long time been a general observation and _maxime_, that _Nature
does nothing in vain_; It seems, I say, contrary to that great Wisdom of
Nature, that these prettily shap’d bodies should have all those curious
Figures and contrivances (which many of them are adorn’d and contriv’d
with) generated or wrought by a _Plastick virtue_, for no higher end, then
onely to exhibite such a form; which he that shall throughly consider all
the circumstances of such kind of Figur’d bodies, will, I think, have great
reason to believe, though, I confess, one cannot presently be able to find
out what Nature’s designs are. It were therefore very desirable, that a
good collection of such kind of figur’d stones were collected; and as many
particulars, circumstances, and informations collected with them as could
be obtained, that from such a History of Observations well rang’d, examin’d
and digested, the true original or production of all those kinds of stones
might be perfectly and surely known; such as are _Thunder-stones_, _Lapides
Stellares_, _Lapides Judaici_, and multitudes of other, whereof mention is
made in _Aldonandus_, _Wormius_, and other Writers of Minerals.
* * * * *
Observ. XVIII. _Of the _Schematisme_ or _Texture_ of _Cork_, and of the
Cells and Pores of some other such frothy Bodies._
I took a good clear piece of Cork, and with a Pen-knife sharpen’d as keen
as a Razor, I cut a piece of it off, and thereby left the surface of it
exceeding smooth, then examining it very diligently with a _Microscope_, me
thought I could perceive it to appear a little porous; but I could not so
plainly distinguish them, as to be sure that they were pores, much less
what Figure they were of: But judging from the lightness and yielding
quality of the Cork, that certainly the texture could not be so curious,
but that possibly, if I could use some further diligence, I might find it
to be discernable with a _Microscope_, I with the same sharp Penknife, cut
off from the former smooth surface an exceeding thin piece of it, and
placing it on a black object Plate, because it was it self a white body,
and casting the light on it with a deep _plano convex Glass_, I could
exceeding plainly perceive it to be all perforated and porous, much like a
Honey-comb, but that the pores of it were not regular; yet it was not
unlike a Honey-comb in these particulars.
First, in that it had a very little solid substance, in comparison of the
empty cavity that was contain’d between, as does more manifestly appear by
the Figure A and B of the XI. _Scheme_, for the _Interstitia_, or walls (as
I may so call them) or partitions of those pores were neer as thin in
proportion to their pores, as those thin films of Wax in a Honey-comb
(which enclose and constitute the _sexangular celts_) are to theirs.
Next, in that these pores, or cells, were not very deep, but consisted of a
great many little Boxes, separated out of one continued long pore, by
certain _Diaphragms_, as is visible by the Figure B, which represents a
sight of those pores split the long-ways.
I no sooner discern’d these (which were indeed the first _microscopical_
pores I ever saw, and perhaps, that were ever seen, for I had not met with
any Writer or Person, that had made any mention of them before this) but me
thought I had with the discovery of them, presently hinted to me the true
and intelligible reason of all the _Phænomena_ of Cork; As,
First, if I enquir’d why it was so exceeding light a body? my _Microscope_
could presently inform me that here was the same reason evident that there
is found for the lightness of froth, an empty Honey-comb, Wool, a Spunge, a
Pumice-stone, or the like; namely, a very small quantity of a solid body,
extended into exceeding large dimensions.
Next, it seem’d nothing more difficult to give an intelligible reason, why
Cork is a body so very unapt to suck and drink in Water, and consequently
preserves it self, floating on the top of Water, though left on it never so
long: and why it is able to stop and hold air in a Bottle, though it be
there very much condens’d and consequently presses very strongly to get a
passage out, without suffering the least bubble to pass through its
substance. For, as to the first, since our _Microscope_ informs us that the
substance of Cork is altogether fill’d with Air, and that that Air is
perfectly enclosed in little Boxes or Cells distinct from one another. It
seems very plain, why neither the Water, nor any other Air can easily
insinuate it self into them, since there is already within them an _intus
existens_, and consequently, why the pieces of Cork become so good floats
for Nets, and stopples for Viols, or other close Vessels.
And thirdly, if we enquire why Cork has such a springiness and swelling
nature when compress’d? and how it comes to suffer so great a compression,
or seeming penetration of dimensions, so as to be made a substance as
heavie again and more, bulk for bulk, as it was before compression, and yet
suffer’d to return, is found to extend it self again into the same space?
Our _Microscope_ will easily inform us, that the whole mass consists of an
infinite company of small Boxes or Bladders of Air, which is a substance of
a springy nature, and that will suffer a considerable condensation (as I
have several times found by divers trials, by which I have most evidently
condens’d it into less then a twentieth part of its usual dimensions neer
the Earth, and that with no other strength then that of my hands without
any kind of forcing Engine, such as Racks, Leavers, Wheels, Pullies, or the
like, but this onely by and by) and besides, it seems very probable that
those very films or sides of the pores, have in them a springing quality,
as almost all other kind of Vegetable substances have, so as to help to
restore themselves to their former position.
And could we so easily and certainly discover the _Schematisme_ and
_Texture_ even of these films, and of several other bodies, as we can these
of Cork; there seems no probable reason to the contrary, but that we might
as readily render the true reason of all their _Phænomena_; as namely, what
were the cause of the springiness, and toughness of some, both as to their
flexibility and restitution. What, of the friability or brittleness of some
others, and the like; but till such time as our _Microscope_, or some other
means, enable us to discover the true _Schematism_ and _Texture_ of all
kinds of bodies, we must grope, as it were, in the dark, and onely ghess at
the true reasons of things by similitudes and comparisons.
But, to return to our Observation. I told several lines of these pores, and
found that there were usually about threescore of these small Cells placed
end-ways in the eighteenth part of an Inch in length, whence I concluded
there must be neer eleven hundred of them, or somewhat more then a thousand
in the length of an Inch, and therefore in a square Inch above a Million,
or 1166400. and in a Cubick Inch, above twelve hundred Millions, or
1259712000. a thing almost incredible, did not our _Microscope_ assure us
of it by ocular demonstration; nay, did it not discover to us the pores of
a body, which were they _diaphragm’d_, like those of Cork, would afford us
in one Cubick Inch, more then ten times as many little Cells, as is evident
in several charr’d Vegetables; so prodigiously curious are the works of
Nature, that even these conspicuous pores of bodies, which seem to be the
channels or pipes through which the _Succus nutritius_, or natural juices
of Vegetables are convey’d, and seem to correspond to the veins, arteries
and other Vessels in sensible creatures, that these pores I say, which seem
to be the Vessels of nutrition to the vastest body in the World, are yet so
exceeding small, that the _Atoms_ which _Epicurus_ fancy’d would go neer to
prove too bigg to enter them, much more to constitute a fluid body in them.
And how infinitely smaller then must be the Vessels of a Mite, or the pores
of one of those little Vegetables I have discovered to grow on the
back side of a Rose-leaf, and shall anon more fully describe, whose bulk is
many millions of times less then the bulk of the small shrub it grows on;
and even that shrub, many millions of times less in bulk then several trees
(that have heretofore grown in _England_, and are this day flourishing in
other hotter Climates, as we are very credibly inform’d) if at least the
pores of this small Vegetable should keep any such proportion to the body
of it, as we have found these pores of other Vegetables to do to their
bulk. But of these pores I have said more elsewhere.
To proceed then, Cork seems to be by the transverse constitution of the
pores, a kind of _Fungus_ or Mushrome, for the pores lie like so many Rays
tending from the center, or pith of the tree, outwards; so that if you cut
off a piece from a board of Cork transversly, to the flat of it, you will,
as it were, split the pores, and they will appear just as they are
express’d in the Figure B of the XI. _Scheme_. But if you shave off a very
thin piece from this board, parallel to the plain of it, you will cut all
the pores transversly, and they will appear almost as they are express’d in
the Figure A, save onely the solid _Interstitia_ will not appear so thick
as they are there represented.
So that Cork seems to suck its nourishment from the subjacent bark of the
Tree immediately, and to be a kind of excrescence, or a substance distinct
from the substances of the entire Tree, something _analogus_ to the
Mushrome, or Moss on other Trees, or to the hairs on Animals. And having
enquir’d into the History of Cork, I find it reckoned as an excrescency of
the bark of a certain Tree, which is distinct from the two barks that lie
within it, which are common also to other trees; That ’tis some time before
the Cork that covers the young and tender sprouts comes to be discernable;
That it cracks, flaws, and cleaves into many great chaps, the bark
underneath remaining entire; That it may be separated and remov’d from the
Tree, and yet the two under-barks (such as are also common to that with
other Trees) not at all injur’d, but rather helped and freed from an
external injury. Thus _Jonstonus_ in _Dendrologia_, speaking _de Subere_,
says, _Arbor est procera, Lignum est robustum, dempto cortice in aquis non
fluitat, Cortice in orbem detracto juvatur, crascescens enim præstringit &
strangulat, intra triennium iterum repletur: Caudex ubi adolescit crassus,
cortex superior densus carnosus, duos digitos crassus, scaber, rimosus, &
qui nisi detrahatur dehiscit, alioque subnascente expellitur, interior qui
subest novellus ita rubet ut arbor minio picta videatur_. Which Histories,
if well consider’d, and the tree, substance, and manner of growing, if well
examin’d, would, I am very apt to believe, much confirm this my conjecture
about the origination of Cork.
Nor is this kind of Texture peculiar to Cork onely; for upon examination
with my _Microscope_, I have found that the pith of an Elder, or almost any
other Tree, the inner pulp or pith of the Cany hollow stalks of several
other Vegetables: as of Fennel, Carrets, Daucus, Bur-docks, Teasels, Fearn,
some kinds of Reeds, &c. have much such a kind of _Schematisme_, as I have
lately shewn that of Cork, save onely that here the pores are rang’d the
long-ways, or the same ways with the length of the Cane, whereas in Cork
they are transverse.
The pith also that fills that part of the stalk of a Feather that is above
the Quil, has much such a kind of texture, save onely that which way soever
I set this light substance, the pores seem’d to be cut transversly; so that
I ghess this pith which fills the Feather, not to consist of abundance of
long pores separated with Diaphragms, as Cork does, but to be a kind of
solid or hardned froth, or a _congeries_ of very small bubbles consolidated
in that form, into a pretty stiff as well as tough concrete, and that each
Cavern, Bubble, or Cell, is distinctly separate from any of the rest,
without any kind of hole in the encompassing films, so that I could no more
blow through a piece of this kinde of substance, then I could through a
piece of Cork, or the sound pith of an Elder.
But though I could not with my _Microscope_, nor with my breath, nor any
other way I have yet try’d, discover a passage out of one of those cavities
into another, yet I cannot thence conclude, that therefore there are none
such, by which the _Succus nutritius_, or appropriate juices of Vegetables,
may pass through them; for, in several of those Vegetables, whil’st green,
I have with my _Microscope_, plainly enough discover’d these Cells or Poles
fill’d with juices, and by degrees sweating them out; as I have also
observed in green Wood all those long _Microscopical_ pores which appear in
Charcoal perfectly empty of any thing but Air.
Now, though I have with great diligence endeavoured to find whether there
be any such thing in those _Microscopical_ pores of Wood or Piths, as the
_Valves_ in the heart, veins, and other passages of Animals, that open and
give passage to the contain’d fluid juices one way, and shut themselves,
and impede the passage of such liquors back again, yet have I not hitherto
been able to say any thing positive in it; though, me thinks, it seems very
probable, that Nature has in these passages, as well as in those of Animal
bodies, very many appropriated Instruments and contrivances, whereby to
bring her designs and end to pass, which ’tis not improbable, but that some
diligent Observer, if help’d with better _Microscopes_, may in time detect.
And that this may be so, seems with great probability to be argued from the
strange _Phænomena_ of sensitive Plants, wherein Nature seems to perform
several Animal actions with the same _Schematism_ or _Orginization_ that is
common to all Vegetables, as may appear by some no less instructive then
curious Observations that were made by divers Eminent Members of the _Royal
Society_ on some of these kind of Plants, whereof an account was delivered
in to them by the most Ingenious and Excellent _Physician_, Doctor _Clark_,
which, having that liberty granted me by that most Illustrious Society, I
have hereunto adjoyn’d.
_Observations on the _Humble_ and _Sensible Plants_ in _M Chiffin’s_ Garden
in Saint _James_’s Park, made _August_ the _9th, 1661_._ _Present, the_
Lord _Brouncker_, Sr. _Robert Moray_, Dr. _Wilkins_, Mr. _Evelin_, Dr.
_Henshaw_, _and_ Dr. _Clark_.
There are four Plants, two of which are little shrub Plants, with a
little short stock, about an Inch above the ground, from whence are
spread several sticky branches, round, streight, and smooth in the
distances between the Sprouts, but just under the Sprouts there are two
sharp thorny prickles, broad in the letting on, as in the Bramble, one
just under the Sprout, the other on the opposite side of the branch.
[14]The distances betwixt the Sprouts are usually something more then
an Inch, and many upon a Branch, according to its length, and they grew
so, that if the lower Sprout be on the left side of the Branch, the
next above is on the right, and so to the end, not sprouting by pairs.
At the end of each Sprout are generally four sprigs, two at the
Extremity, and one on each side, just under it. At the first sprouting
of these from the Branch to the Sprig where the leaves grow, they are
full of little short white hairs, which wear off as the leaves grow,
and then they are smooth as the Branch.
Upon each of these sprigs, are, for the most part, eleven pair of
leaves, neatly set into the uppermost part of the little sprig, exactly
one against another, as it were in little _articulations_, such as
Anatomists call _Enarthrosis_, where the round head of a Bone is
received into another fitted for its motion; and standing very fitly to
shut themselves and touch, the pairs just above them closing somewhat
upon them, as in the shut sprig; so is the little round _Pedunculus_ of
this leaf fitted into a little cavity of the sprig, visible to the eye
in a sprig new pluck’d, or in a sprig withered on the Branch, from
which the leaves easily fall by touching.
The leaf being almost an oblong square, and set into the _Pedunculus_,
at one of the lower corners, receiveth from that not onely a _Spine_,
as I may call it, which, passing through the leaf, divides it so
length-ways that the outer-side is broader then the inner next the
sprig, but little _fibres_ passing obliquely towards the opposite
broader side, seem to make it here a little muscular, and fitted to
move the whole leaf, which, together with the whole sprig, are set full
with little short whitish hairs.
One of these Plants, whose branch seem’d to be older and more grown
then the other, onely the tender Sprouts of it, after the leaves are
shut, fall and hang down; of the other, the whole branches fall to the
ground, if the Sun shine very warm, upon the first taking off the
Glass, which I therefore call the _humble Plant_.
The other two, which do never fall, nor do any of their branches flag
and hang down, shut not their leaves, but upon somewhat a hard stroke;
the stalks seem to grow up from a root, and appear more _herbaceous_,
they are round and smooth, without any prickle, the Sprouts from them
have several pairs of sprigs, with much less leaves then the other on
them, and have on each sprig generally seventeen pair.
Upon touching any of the sprigs with leaves on, all the leaves on that
sprig contracting themselves by pairs, joyned their upper superficies
close together.
Upon the dropping a drop of _Aqua fortis_ on the sprig betwixt the
leaves, ff all the leaves above shut presently, those below by pairs
successively after, and by the lower leaves of the other branches, ll,
kk, &c. and so every pair successively, with some little distance of
time betwixt, to the top of each sprig, and so they continu’d shut all
the time we were there. But I returning the next day, and several days
since, found all the leaves dilated again on two of the sprigs; but
from ff, where the _Aqua fortis_ had dropped upwards, dead and
withered; but those below on the same sprig, green, and closing upon
the touch, and are so to this day, _August_ 14.
With a pair of Scissers, as suddenly as it could be done, one of the
leaves bb was clipped off in the middle, upon which that pair, and the
pair above, closed presently, after a little interval, dd, then ee, and
so the rest of the pairs, to the bottom of the sprig, and then the
motion began in the lower pairs, ll, on the other sprigs, and so shut
them by pairs upwards, though not with such distinct distances.
Under a pretty large branch with its sprigs on, there lying a large
Shell betwixt two and three Inches below it, there was rubbed on a
strong scented oyl, after a little time all the leaves on that sprig
were shut, and so they continued all the time of our stay there, but at
my returne the next day, I found the position of the Shell alter’d, and
the leaves expanded as before, and closing upon the touch.
Upon the application of the Sun-beams by a Burning-glass, the more
_humble Plant_ fell, the other shut their leaves.
We could not so apply the smoak of _Sulpher_, as to have any visible
effect from that, at two or three times trial; but on another trial,
the smoak touching the leaves, it succeeded.
The _humble Plant_ fell upon taking off the Glass wherewith it was
covered.
Cutting off one of the little Sprouts, two or three drops of liquor
were thrust out of the part from whence that was cut, very cleer, and
pellucid, of a bright greenish colour, tasting at first a little
bitterish, but after leaving a licorish-like taste in my mouth.
Since, going two or three times when it was cold, I took the Glasses
from the more _humble Plant_, and it did not fall as formerly, but shut
its leaves onely. But coming afterwards, when the Sun shone very warm,
as soon as it was taken off, it fell as before.
Since I pluck’d off another sprig, whose leaves were all shut, and had
been so some time, thinking to observe the liquor should come from that
I had broken off, but finding none, though with pressing, to come, I,
as dexterously as I could, pull’d off one whose leaves were expanded,
and then had upon the shutting of the leaves, a little of the mention’d
liquor, from the end of the sprig I had broken from the Plant. And this
twice successively, as often almost as I durst rob the Plant.
But my curiosity carrying me yet further, I cut off one of the harder
branches of the stronger Plant, and there came of the liquor, both from
that I had cut, and that I had cut it from, without pressure.
Which made me think, that the motion of this Plant upon touching, might
be from this, that there being a constant _intercourse_ betwixt every
part of this Plant and its root, either by a _circulation_ of this
liquor, or a constant pressing of the subtiler parts of it to every
extremity of the Plant. Upon every pressure, from whatsoever it
proceeds, greater then that which keeps it up, the subtile parts of
this liquor are thrust downwards, towards its _articulations_ of the
leaves, where, not having room presently to get into the sprig, the
little round _pedunculus_, from whence the _Spine_ and those oblique
_Fibres_ I mentioned rise, being dilated, the _Spine_ and _Fibres_
(being continued from it) must be contracted and shortned, and so draw
the leaf upwards to joyn with its fellow in the same condition with it
self, where, being closed, they are held together by the implications
of the little whitish hair, as well as by the still retreating liquor,
which distending the _Fibres_ that are continued lower to the branch
and root, shorten them above; and when the liquor is so much forced
from the Sprout, whose _Fibres_ are yet tender, and not able to support
themselves, but by that tensness which the liquor filling their
_interstices_ gives them, the Sprout hangs and flags.
But, perhaps, he that had the ability and leisure to give you the exact
_Anatomy_ of this pretty Plant, to shew you its _Fibres_, and visible
_Canales_, through which this fine liquor circulateth, or is moved, and
had the faculty of better and more copiously expressing his
Observations and conceptions, such a one would easily from the motion
of this liquor, solve all the _Phænomena_, and would not fear to
affirm, that it is no obscure sensation this Plant hath. But I have
said too much, I humbly submit, and am ready to stand corrected.
I have not yet made so full and satisfactory Observations as I desire on
this Plant, which seems to be a Subject that will afford abundance of
information. But as farr as I have had opportunity to examine it, I have
discovered with my _Microscope_ very curious structures and contrivances;
but designing much more accurate examinations and trials, both with my
_Microscope_, and otherwise, as soon as the season will permit, I shall not
till then add any thing of what I have already taken notice of; but as farr
as I have yet observ’d, I judge the motion of it to proceed from causes
very differing from those by which Gut-strings, or Lute-strings, the beard
of a wilde _Oat_, or the beard of the Seeds of _Geranium_, _Moscatum_, or
_Musk-grass_ and other kinds of _Cranes-bill_, move themselves. Of which I
shall add more in the subsequent Observations on those bodies.
* * * * *
Observ. XIX. _Of a _Plant_ growing in the blighted or yellow specks of
_Damask-rose-leaves_, _Bramble-leaves_, and some other kind of leaves._
I have for several years together, in the Moneths of _June_, _July_,
_August_, and _September_ (when any of the green leaves of _Roses_ begin to
dry and grow yellow) observ’d many of them, especially the leaves of the
old shrubs of _Damask Roses_, all bespecked with yellow stains; and the
undersides just against them, to have little yellow hillocks of a gummous
substance, and several of them to have small black spots in the midst of
those yellow ones, which, to the naked eye, appear’d no bigger then the
point of a Pin, or the smallest black spot or tittle of Ink one is able to
make with a very sharp pointed Pen.
Examining these with a _Microscope_, I was able plainly to distinguish, up
and down the surface, several small yellow knobs, of a kind of yellowish
red gummy substance, out of which I perceiv’d there sprung multitudes of
little cases or black bodies like Seed-cods, and those of them that were
quite without the hillock of Gumm, disclos’d themselves to grow out of it
with a small Straw-colour’d and transparent stem, the which seed and stem
appear’d very like those of common Moss (which I elsewhere describe) but
that they were abundantly less, many hundreds of them being not able to
equalize one single seed Cod of Moss.
I have often doubted whether they were the seed Cods of some little Plant,
or some kind of small Buds, or the Eggs of some very small Insect, they
appear’d of a dark brownish red, some almost quite black, and of a Figure
much resembling the seed-cod of Moss, but their stalks on which they grew
were of a very fine transparent substance, almost like the stalk of mould,
but that they seem’d somewhat more yellow.
That which makes me to suppose them to be Vegetables, is for that I
perceiv’d many of those hillocks bare or destitute, as if those bodies lay
yet conceal’d, as G. In others of them, they were just springing out of
their gummy hillocks, which all seem’d to shoot directly outwards, as at A.
In others, as at B, I found them just gotten out, with very little or no
stalk, and the Cods of an indifferent cize; but in others, as C, I found
them begin to have little short stalks, or stems; in others, as D, those
stems were grown bigger, and larger; and in others, as at E, F, H, I, K, L,
&c. those stems and Cods were grown a great deal bigger, and the stalks
were more bulky about the root, and very much taper’d towards the top, as
at F and L is most visible.
I did not find that any of them had any seed in them, or that any of them
were hollow, but as they grew bigger and bigger, I found those heads or
Cods begin to turn their tops towards their roots, in the same manner as I
had observ’d that of Moss to do; so that in all likelihood, Nature did
intend in that posture, what she does in the like seed-cods of greater
bulk, that is, that the seed, when ripe, should be shaken out and dispersed
at the end of it, as we find in Columbine Cods, and the like.
The whole Oval OOOO in the second _Figure_ of the 12. _Scheme_ represents a
small part of a Rose-leaf, about the bigness of the little Oval in the
hillock, C, marked with the Figure X. in which I have not particularly
observ’d all the other forms of the surface of the Rose-leaf, as being
little to my present purpose.
Now, if these Cods have a seed in them so proportion’d to the Cod, as thole
of _Pinks_, and _Carnations_, and _Columbines_, and the like, how
unimaginably small must each of those seeds necessarily be, for the whole
length of one of the largest of those Cods was not ¹⁄₅₀₀ part of an Inch;
some not above ¹⁄₁₀₀₀, and therefore certainly, very many thousand of them
would be unable to make a bulk that should be visible to the naked eye; and
if each of these contain the Rudiments of a young Plant of the same kind,
what must we say of the pores and constituent parts of that?
The generation of this Plant seems in part, ascribable to a kind of
_Mildew_ or _Blight_, whereby the parts of the leaves grow scabby, or
putrify’d, as it were, so as that the moisture breaks out in little scabs
or spots, which, as I said before, look like little knobs of a red gummous
substance.
From this putrify’d scab breaks out this little Vegetable; which may be
somewhat like a _Mould_ or _Moss_; and may have its _equivocal_ generation
much after the same manner as I have supposed _Moss_ or _Mould_ to have,
and to be a more simple and uncompounded kind of vegetation, which is set a
moving by the _putrefactive_ and _fermentative_ heat, joyn’d with that of
the ambient aerial, when (by the putrifaction and decay of some other parts
of the vegetable, that for a while staid its progress) it is unfetter’d and
left at liberty to move in its former course, but by reason of its
_regulators_, moves and acts after quite another manner then it did when a
_coagent_ in the more compounded _machine_ of the more perfect Vegetable.
And from this very same Principle, I imagine the _Misleto_ of Oaks, Thorns,
Appletrees, and other Trees, to have its original: It seldom or never
growing on any of those Trees, till they begin to wax decrepid, and decay
with age, and are pester’d with many other infirmities.
Hither also may be referr’d those multitudes and varieties of _Mushroms_,
such as that, call’d _Jews-ears_, all sorts of _gray_ and _green_ Mosses,
&c. which infest all kind of Trees, shrubs, and the like, especially when
they come to any bigness. And this we see to be very much the method of
Nature throughout its operations, _putrifactive Vegetables_ very often
producing a Vegetable of a much less compounded nature, and of a much
inferiour tribe; and _putrefactive_ animal substances degenerating into
some kind of animal production of a much inferiour rank, and of a more
simple nature.
Thus we find the humours and substances of the body, upon _putrifaction_,
to produce strange kinds of moving Vermine: _the putrifaction_ of the
slimes and juices of the Stomack and Guts, produce Worms almost like
Earth-worms, the Wheals in childrens hands produce a little Worm, call’d a
_Wheal-worm_: The bloud and milk, and other humours, produce other kinds of
Worms, at least, if we may believe what is deliver’d to us by very famous
Authors; though, I confess, I have not yet been able to discover such my
self.
And whereas it may seem strange that _Vinegar_, _Meal_, musty _Casks_, &c.
are observ’d to breed their differing kinds of Insects, or living
creatures, whereas they being Vegetable substances, seem to be of an
inferiour kind, and so unable to produce a creature more noble, or of a
more compounded nature then they themselves are of, and so without some
concurrent seminal principle, may be thought utterly unfit for such an
operation; I must add, that we cannot presently positively say, there are
no animal substances, either mediately, as by the soil or fatning of the
Plant from whence they sprung, or more immediately, by the real mixture or
composition of such substances, join’d with them; or perchance some kind of
Insect, in such places where such kind of _putrifying_ or _fermenting_
bodies are, may, by a certain instinct of nature, eject some sort of
seminal principle, which cooperating with various kinds of _putrifying_
substances, may produce various kinds of Insects, or Animate bodies: For we
find in most sorts of those lower degrees of Animate bodies, that the
_putrifying_ substances on which these Eggs, Seeds, or seminal principles
are cast by the Insect, become, as it were, the _Matrices_ or Wombs that
conduce very much to their generation, and may perchance also to their
variation and alteration, much after the same manner, as, by strange and
unnatural copulations, several new kinds of Animals are produc’d, as
_Mules_, and the like, which are usually call’d Monstrous, because a little
unusual, though many of them have all their principal parts as perfectly
shap’d and adapted for their peculiar uses, as any of the most perfect
Animals. If therefore the _putrifying_ body, on which any kind of seminal
or vital principle chances to be cast, become somewhat more then meerly a
nursing and fostering helper in the generation and production of any kind
of Animate body, the more neer it approaches the true nature of a Womb, the
more power will it have on the by-blow it incloses. But of this somewhat
more in the description of the _Water-gnat_. Perhaps some more accurate
Enquiries and Observations about these matters might bring the Question to
some certainty, which would be of no small concern in Natural Philosophy.
But that _putrifying_ animal substances may produce animals of an inferior
kind, I see not any so very great a difficulty, but that one may, without
much absurdity, admit: For as there may be multitudes of contrivances that
go to the making up of one compleat Animate body; so, That some of those
_coadjutors_, in the perfect existence and life of it, may be vitiated, and
the life of the whole destroyed, and yet several of the constituting
contrivances remain intire, I cannot think it beyond imagination or
possibility; no more then that a like accidental process, as I have
elswhere hinted, may also be supposed to explicate the method of Nature in
the _Metamorphosis_ of Plants. And though the difference between a Plant
and an Animal be very great, yet I have not hitherto met with any so
_cogent_ an Argument, as to make me positive in affirming these two to be
altogether _Heterogeneous_ and of quite differing kinds of Nature: And
besides, as there are many _Zoophyts_, and sensitive Plants (divers of
which I have seen, which are of a middle nature, and seem to be Natures
transition from one degree to another, which may be observ’d in all her
other passages, wherein she is very seldom observ’d to leap from one step
to another) so have we, in some Authors, Instances of Plants turning into
Animals, and Animals into Plants, and the like; and some other very strange
(because unheeded) proceedings of Nature; something of which kind may be
met with, in the description of the _Water-Gnat_, though it be not
altogether so direct to the present purpose.
But to refer this Discourse of Animals to their proper places, I shall add,
that though one should suppose, or it should be prov’d by Observations;
that several of these kinds of Plants are accidentally produc’d by a casual
_putrifaction_, I see not any great reason to question, but that,
notwithstanding its own production was as ’twere casual, yet it may
germinate and produce seed, and by it propagate its own, that is, a new
Species. For we do not know, but that the Omnipotent and All-wise Creator
might as directly design the structure of such a Vegetable, or such an
Animal to be produc’d out of such or such a _putrifaction_ or change of
this or that body, towards the constitution or structure of which, he knew
it necessary, or thought it fit to make it an ingredient; as that the
digestion or moderate heating of an Egg, either by the Female, or the Sun,
or the heat of the Fire, or the like, should produce this or that Bird; or
that _Putrifactive_ and warm steams should, out of the blowings, as they
call them, that is, the Eggs of a Flie, produce a living Magot, and that,
by degrees, be turn’d into an _Aurelia_, and that, by a longer and a
proportion’d heat, be _transmuted_ into a Fly. Nor need we therefore to
suppose it the more imperfect in its kind, then the more compounded
Vegetable or Animal of which it is a part; for he might as compleatly
furnish it with all kinds of contrivances necessary for its own existence,
and the propagation of its own Species, and yet make it a part of a more
compounded body: as a Clock-maker might make a Set of Chimes to be a part
of a Clock, and yet, when the watch part or striking part are taken away,
and the hindrances of its motion remov’d, this chiming part may go as
accurately, and strike its tune as exactly, as if it were still a part of
the compounded _Automaton_. So, though the original cause, or seminal
principle from which this minute Plant on Rose leaves did spring; were,
before the corruption caus’d by the Mill-dew, a component part of the leaf
on which it grew, and did serve as a _coagent_ in the production and
constitution of it, yet might it be so consummate, as to produce a seed
which might have a power of propagating the same species: the works of the
Creator seeming of such an excellency, that though they are unable to help
to the perfecting of the more compounded existence of the greater Plant or
Animal, they may have notwithstanding an ability of acting singly upon
their own internal principle, so as to produce a Vegetable body, though of
a less compounded nature, and to proceed so farr in the method of other
Vegetables, as to bear flowers and seeds, which may be capable of
propagating the like. So that the little cases which appear to grow on the
top of the slender stalks, may, for ought I know, though I should suppose
them to spring from the perverting of the usual course of the parent
Vegetable, contain a seed, which, being scatter’d on other leaves of the
same Plant, may produce a Plant of much the same kind.
Nor are Damask-Rose leaves the onely leaves that produce these kinds of
Vegetable sproutings; for I have observ’d them also in several other kinds
of Rose leaves, and on the leaves of several sorts of Briers, and on
Bramble leaves they are oftentimes to be found in very great clusters; so
that I have found in one cluster, three, four, or five hundred of them,
making a very conspicuous black spot or scab on the back side of the leaf.
* * * * *
Observ. XX. _Of _blue Mould_, and of the first Principles of Vegetation
arising from _Putrefaction_._
The Blue and White and several kinds of hairy mouldy spots, which are
observable upon divers kinds of _putrify’d_ bodies, whether Animal
substances, or Vegetable, such as the skin, raw or dress’d, flesh, bloud,
humours, milk, green Cheese, &c. or rotten sappy Wood, or Herbs, Leaves,
Barks, Roots, &c. of Plants, are all of them nothing else but several kinds
of small and variously figur’d Mushroms, which, from convenient materials
in those _putrifying_ bodies, are, by the concurrent heat of the Air,
excited to a certain kind of vegetation, which will not be unworthy our
more serious speculation and examination, as I shall by and by shew. But,
first, I must premise a short description of this _Specimen_, which I have
added of this Tribe, in the first Figure of the XII. _Scheme_, which is
nothing else but the appearance of a small white spot of hairy mould,
multitudes of which I found to bespeck & whiten over the red covers of a
small book, which, it seems, were of Sheeps skin, that being more apt to
gather mould, even in a dry and clean room, then other leathers. These
spots appear’d, through a good _Microscope_, to be a very pretty shap’d
Vegetative body, which, from almost the same part of the Leather, shot out
multitudes of small long cylindrical and transparent stalks, not exactly
streight, but a little bended with the weight of a round and white knob
that grew on the top of each of them; many of these knobs I observ’d to be
very round, and of a smooth surface, such as A, A, &c. others smooth
likewise, but a little oblong, as B; several of them a little broken, or
cloven with chops at the top, as C; others flitter’d as ’twere, or flown
all to pieces, as D, D. The whole substance of these pretty bodies was of a
very tender constitution, much like the substance of the softer kind of
common white Mushroms, for by touching them with a Pin, I found them to be
brused and torn; they seem’d each of them to have a distinct root of their
own; for though they grew neer together in a cluster, yet I could perceive
each stem to rise out of a distinct part or pore of the Leather; some of
these were small and short, as seeming to have been but newly sprung up, of
these the balls were for the most part round, others were bigger, and
taller, as being perhaps of a longer growth, and of these, for the most
part, the heads were broken, and some much wasted, as E; what these heads
contain’d I could not perceive; whether they were knobs and flowers, or
seed cases, I am not able to say, but they seem’d most likely to be of the
same nature with those that grow on Mushroms, which they did, some of them,
not a little resemble.
Both their smell and taste, which are active enough to make a sensible
impression upon those organs, are unpleasant and noisome.
I could not find that they would so quickly be destroy’d by the actual
flame of a Candle, as at first sight of them I conceived they would be, but
they remain’d intire after I had past that part of the Leather on which
they stuck three or four times through the flame of a Candle; so that, it
seems they are not very apt to take fire, no more then the common white
Mushroms are when they are sappy.
There are a multitude of other shapes, of which these _Microscopical_
Mushroms are figur’d, which would have been a long Work to have described,
and would not have suited so well with my design in this Treatise, onely,
amongst the rest, I must not forget to take notice of one that was a little
like to, or resembled, a Spunge, consisting of a multitude of little
Ramifications almost as that body does, which indeed seems to be a kind of
Water-Mushrom, of a very pretty texture, as I else-where manifest. And a
second, which I must not omit, because often mingled, and neer adjoining to
these I have describ’d, and this appear’d much like a Thicket of bushes, or
brambles, very much branch’d, and extended, some of them, to a great
length, in proportion to their Diameter, like creeping brambles.
The manner of the growth and formation of this kind of Vegetable, is the
third head of Enquiry, which, had I time, I should follow: the figure and
method of Generation in this concrete seeming to me, next after the Enquiry
into the formation, figuration; or chrystalization of Salts, to be the most
simple, plain, and easie; and it seems to be a _medium_ through which he
must necessarily pass, that would with any likelihood investigate the
_forma informans_ of Vegetables: for as I think that he shall find it a
very difficult task, who undertakes to discover the form of Saline
crystallizations, without the consideration and prescience of the nature
and reason of a Globular form, and as difficult to explicate this
configuration of Mushroms, without the previous consideration of the form
of Salts; so will the enquiry into the forms of Vegetables be no less, if
not much more difficult, without the fore-knowledge of the forms of
Mushroms, these several Enquiries having no less dependance one upon
another then any select number of Propositions in Mathematical Elements may
be made to have.
Nor do I imagine that the skips from the one to another will be found very
great, if beginning from fluidity, or body without any form, we descend
gradually, till we arrive at the highest form of a bruite Animal’s Soul,
making the steps or foundations of our Enquiry, _Fluidity_, _Orbiculation_,
_Fixation_, _Angulization_, or _Crystallization Germination_ or
_Ebullition_, _Vegetation_, _Plantanimation_, _Animation_, _Sensation_,
_Imagination_.
Now, that we may the better proceed in our Enquiry, It will be requisite to
consider:
First, that Mould and Mushroms require no seminal property, but the former
may be produc’d at any time from any kind of _putrifying_ Animal, or
Vegetable Substance, as Flesh, &c. kept moist and warm, and the latter, if
what _Mathiolus_ relates be true, of making them by Art, are as much within
our command, of which Matter take the _Epitomie_ which Mr. _Parkinson_ has
deliver’d in his _Herbal_, in his Chapter of _Mushroms_, because I have not
_Mathiolus_ now by me: _Unto these Mushroms_ (saith he) _may also be
adjoyn’d those which are made of Art (whereof _Mathiolus_ makes mention)
that grow naturally among certain stones in _Naples_, and that the stones
being digg’d up, and carried to _Rome_, and other places, where they set
them in their Wine Cellars, covering them with a little Earth, and
sprinkling a little warm water thereon, would within four days produce
Mushroms fit to be eaten, at what time one will: As also that Mushroms may
be made to grow at the foot of a wilde _Poplar Tree_, within four days
after, warm water wherein some leaves have been dissolv’d shall be pour’d
into the Root (which must be slit) and the stock above ground._
Next, that as Mushroms may be generated without seed, so does it not appear
that they have any such thing as seed in any part of them; for having
considered several kinds of them, I could never find any thing in them that
I could with any probability ghess to be the seed of it, so that it does
not as yet appear (that I know of) that Mushroms may be generated from a
seed, but they rather seem to depend merely upon a convenient constitution
of the matter out of which they are made, and a concurrence of either
natural or artificial heat.
Thirdly, that by several bodies (as Salts and Metals both in Water and in
the air, and by several kinds of sublimations in the Air) actuated and
guided with a congruous heat, there may be produc’d several kinds of bodies
as curiously, if not of a more compos’d Figure; several kinds of rising or
Ebulliating Figures seem to manifest; as witness the shooting in the
Rectification of spirits of _Urine_, _Hart-horn_, _Bloud_, &c. witness also
the curious branches of evaporated dissolutions, some of them against the
sides of the containing Jar: others standing up, or growing an end, out of
the bottom, of which I have taken notice of a very great variety. But above
all the rest, it is a very pretty kind of Germination which is afforded us
in the Silver Tree, the manner of making which with Mercury and Silver, is
well known to the Chymists, in which there is an Ebullition or Germination,
very much like this of Mushroms, if I have been rightly inform’d of it.
Fourthly, I have very often taken notice of, and also observ’d with a
_Microscope_, certain excrescencies or Ebullitions in the snuff of a
Candle, which, partly from the sticking of the smoaky particles as they are
carryed upwards by the current of the rarify’d Air and flame, and partly
also from a kind of Germination or Ebullition of some actuated unctuous
parts which creep along and filter through some small string of the Week,
are formed into pretty round and uniform heads, very much resembling the
form of hooded Mushroms, which, being by any means expos’d to the fresh
Air, or that air which encompasses the flame, they are presently lick’d up
and devour’d by it, and vanish.
The reason of which _Phænomenon_ seems to me, to be no other then this:
That when a convenient thread of the Week is so bent out by the sides of
the snuff that are about half an Inch or more, remov’d above the bottom, or
lowest part of the flame, and that this part be wholly included in the
flame; the Oyl (for the reason of filtration, which I have elsewhere
rendred) being continualy driven up the snuff is driven likewise into this
ragged bended-end, and this being remov’d a good distance, as half an Inch
or more, above the bottom of the flame, the parts of the air that passes by
it, are already, almost satiated with the dissolution of the boiling
unctuous steams that issued out below, and therefore are not onely glutted,
that is, can dissolve no more then what they are already acting upon, but
they carry up with them abundance of unctuous and sooty particles, which
meeting with that rag of the Week, that is plentifully fill’d with Oyl, and
onely spends it as fast as it evaporates, and not at all by dissolution or
burning, by means of these steamy parts of the filtrated Oyl issuing out
at the sides of this ragg, and being inclos’d with an air that is already
satiated and cannot prey upon them nor burn them, the ascending sooty
particles are stay’d about it and fix’d, so as that about the end of that
ragg or filament of the snuff, whence the greatest part of the steams
issue, there is conglobated or fix’d a round and pretty uniform cap, much
resembling the head of a Mushrom, which, if it be of any great bigness, you
may observe that its underside will be bigger then that which is above the
ragg or stem of it; for the Oyl that is brought into it by filtration,
being by the bulk of the cap a little shelter’d from the heat of the flame,
does by that means issue as much out beneath from the stalk or downwards,
as it does upwards, and by reason of the great access of the adventitious
smoak from beneath, it increases most that way. That this may be the true
reason of this _Phænomenon_, I could produce many Arguments and Experiments
to make it probable: As,
First, that the _Filtration_ carries the Oyl to the top of the Week, at
least as high as these raggs, is visible to one that will observe the snuff
of a burning Candle with a _Microscope_, where he may see an Ebullition or
bubbling of the Oyl, as high as the snuff looks black.
Next, that it does steam away more then burn; I could tell you of the dim
burning of a Candle, the longer the snuff be which arises from the
abundance of vapours out of the higher parts of it.
And, thirdly, that in the middle of the flame of the Candle, neer the top
of the snuff, the fire or dissolving principle is nothing neer so strong,
as neer the bottom and out edges of the flame, which may be observ’d by the
burning asunder of a thread, that will first break in those parts that the
edges of the flame touch, and not in the middle.
And I could add several Observables that I have taken notice of in the
flame of a Lamp actuated with Bellows, and very many others that confirm me
in my opinion, but that it is not so much to my present purpose, which is
onely to consider this concreet in the snuff of a Candle, so farr as it has
any resemblance of a Mushrom, to the consideration of which, that I may
return, I say, we may also observe:
In the fifth place, that the droppings or trillings of Lapidescent waters
in Vaults under ground, seem to constitute a kind of _petrify’d_ body,
form’d almost like some kind of Mushroms inverted, in so much that I have
seen some knobb’d a little at the lower end, though for the most part,
indeed they are otherwise shap’d, and taper’d towards the end; the
generation of which seems to be from no other reason but this, that the
water by soaking through the earth and Lime (for I ghess that substance to
add much to it _petrifying_ quality) does so impregnate it self with stony
particles, that hanging in drops in the roof of the Vault, by reason that
the soaking of the water is but slow, it becomes expos’d to the Air, and
thereby the outward part of the drop by degrees grows hard, by reason that
the water gradually evaporating the stony particles neer the outsides of
the drop begin to touch, and by degrees, to dry and grow closer together,
and at length constitute a crust or shell about the drop; and this soaking
by degrees, being more and more supply’d, the drop grows longer and longer,
and the sides harden thicker and thicker into a Quill or Cane, and at
length, that hollow or pith becomes almost stop’d up, and solid: afterwards
the soaking of the _petrifying_ water, finding no longer a passage through
the middle, bursts out, and trickles down the outside, and as the water
evaporates, leaves new superinduc’d shells, which more and more swell the
bulk of those Iceicles, and because of the great supply from the Vault, of
_petrifying_ wafer, those bodies grow bigger and bigger next to the Vault,
and taper or sharpen towards the point; for the access from the arch of the
Vault being but very slow, and consequently the water being spread very
thinly over the surface of the Iceicle, the water begins to settle before
it can reach to the bottom, or corner end of it; whence, if you break one
of these, you would almost imagine it a stick of Wood _petrify’d_, it
having so pretty a resemblance of pith and grain, and if you look on the
outside of a piece, or of one whole, you would think no less, both from its
vegetable roundness and tapering form; but whereas all Vegetables are
observ’d to shoot and grow perpendicularly upwards, this does shoot or
propend directly downwards.
By which last Observables, we see that there may be a very pretty body
shap’d and concreeted by Mechanical principles, without the least shew or
probability of any other seminal _formatrix_.
And since we find that the great reason of the _Phænomena_ of this pretty
_petrifaction_, are to be reduc’d from the gravity of a fluid and pretty
volatil body impregnated with stony particles, why may not the _Phænomena_
of Ebullition or Germination be in part possibly enough deduc’d from the
levity of an impregnated liquor, which therefore perpendicularly ascending
by degrees, evaporates and leaves the more solid and fix’d parts behind in
the form of a Mushrom, which is yet further diversify’d and specificated by
the forms of the parts that impregnated the liquor, and compose or help to
constitute the Mushrom.
That the foremention’d Figures of growing Salts, and the Silver Tree, are
from this principle, I could very easily manifest, but that I have not now
a convenient opportunity of following it, nor have I made a sufficient
number of Experiments and Observations to propound, explicate, and prove so
usefull a _Theory_ as this of Mushroms: for, though the contrary principle
to that of _petrify’d_ Iceicles may be in part a cause, yet I cannot but
think, that there is somewhat a more complicated cause, though yet
Mechanical, and possible to be explain’d.
We therefore have further to enquire of it, what makes it to be such a
liquor, and to ascend, whether the heat of the Sun and Air, or whether
that _firmentiation_ and _putrifaction_, or both together; as also
whether there be not a third or fourth; whether a Saline principle
be not a considerable agent in this business also as well as heat;
whether also a fixation, precipitation or settling of certain parts
out of the aerial menstruum may not be also a considerable coadjutor
in the business. Since we find that many pretty beards or _stiriæ_ of
the particles of Silver may be precipitated upon a piece of Brass put
into a _solution_ of Silver very much diluted with fair water, which
look not unlike a kind of mould or hoar upon that piece of metal; and
the hoar frost looks like a kind of mould; and whether there may not be
several others that do concurr to the production of a Mushrom, having
not yet had sufficient time to prosecute according to my desires,
I must refer this to a better opportunity of my own, or leave and
recommend it to the more diligent enquiry and examination of such as
can be masters both of leisure and conveniencies for such an Enquiry.
And in the mean time, I must conclude, that as far as I have been able to
look into the nature of this Primary kind of life and vegetation, I cannot
find the least probable argument to perswade me there is any other
concurrent cause then such as is purely Mechanical, and that the effects or
productions are as necessary upon the concurrence of those causes as that a
Ship, when the Sails are hoist up, and the Rudder is set to such a
position, should, when the Wind blows, be mov’d in such a way or course to
that or t’other place; Or, as that the brused Watch, which I mention in the
description of Moss, should, when those parts which hindred its motion were
fallen away, begin to move, but after quite another manner then it did
before.
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