Moss is a Plant, that the wisest of Kings thought neither unworthy his
speculation, nor his Pen, and though amongst Plants it be in bulk one of
the smallest, yet it is not the least considerable: For, as to its shape,
it may compare for the beauty of it with any Plant that grows, and bears a
much bigger breadth; it has a root almost like a seedy Parsnep, furnish’d
with small strings and suckers, which are all of them finely branch’d, like
those of the roots of much bigger Vegetables; out of this springs the stem
or body of the Plant, which is somewhat _Quadrangular_, rather then
_Cylindrical_, most curiously _fluted_ or strung with small creases, which
run, for the most part, _parallel_ the whole stem; on the sides of this are
close and thick set, a multitude of fair, large, well-shap’d leaves, some
of them of a rounder, others of a longer shape, according as they are
younger or older when pluck’d; as I ghess by this, that those Plants that
had the stalks growing from the top of them, had their leaves of a much
longer shape, all the surface of each side of which, is curiously cover’d
with a multitude of little oblong transparent bodies, in the manner as you
see it express’d in the leaf B, in the XIII. _Scheme_.
This Plant, when young and springing up, does much resemble a Housleek,
having thick leaves, almost like that, and seems to be somwhat of kin to it
in other particulars; also from the top of the leaves, there shoots out a
small white and transparent hair, or thorn: This stem, in time, come to
shoot out into a long, round and even stalk, which by cutting transversly,
when dry, I manifestly found to be a stiff, hard, and hollow Cane, or Reed,
without any kind of knot, or stop, from its bottom, where the leaves
encompass’d it, to the top, on which there grows a large seed case, A,
cover’d with a thin, and more whitish skin, B, terminated in a long thorny
top, which at first covers all the Case, and by degrees, as that swells,
the skin cleaves, and at length falls off, with its thorny top and all
(which is a part of it) and leaves the seed Case to ripen, and by degrees,
to shatter out its seed at a place underneath this cap, B, which before the
seed is ripe, appears like a flat barr’d button, without any hole in the
middle; but as it ripens, the button grows bigger, and a hole appears in
the middle of it, E, out of which, in all probability, the seed falls: For
as it ripens by a provision of Nature, that end of this Case turns downward
after the same manner as the ears of Wheat and Barley usually do; and
opening several of these dry red Cases, F, I found them to be quite hollow,
without anything at all in them; whereas when I cut them asunder with a
sharp Pen-knife when green, I found in the middle of this great Case,
another smaller round Case, between which two, the _interstices_ were
fill’d with multitudes of stringie _fibres_, which seem’d to suspend the
lesser Case in the middle of the other, which (as farr as I was able to
discern) seem’d full of exceeding small white seeds, much like the
seed-bagg in the knop of a Carnation, after the flowers have been two or
three days, or a week, fallen off; but this I could not so perfectly
discern, and therefore cannot positively affirm it.
After the seed was fallen away, I found both the Case, Stalk, and Plant,
all grow red and wither, and from other parts of the root continually to
spring new branches or slips, which by degrees increased, and grew as bigg
as the former, seeded, ripen’d, shatter’d, and wither’d.
I could not find that it observ’d any particular seasons for these several
kinds of growth, but rather found it to be springing, mature, ripe, seedy,
and wither’d at all times of the year; But I found it most to flourish and
increase in warm and moist weather.
It gathers its nourishments, for the most part, out of some _Lapidescent_,
or other substance corrupted or chang’d from its former texture, or
substantial form; for I have found it to grow on the rotten parts of Stone,
of Bricks, of Wood, of Bones, of Leather, &c.
It oft grows on the barks of several Trees, spreading it self, sometimes
from the ground upwards, and sometimes from some chink or cleft of the bark
of the Tree, which has some _putrify’d_ substance in it, but this seems of
a distinct kind from that which I observ’d to grow on _putrify’d_ inanimate
bodies, and rotten earth.
There are also great varieties of other kinds of Mosses, which grow on
Trees, and several other Plants, of which I shall here make no mention, nor
of the Moss growing on the skull of a dead man, which much resembles that
of Trees.
Whether this Plant does sometimes originally spring or rise out of
corruption, without any disseminated seed, I have not yet made trials
enough to be very much, either positive or negative; for as it seems very
hard to conceive how the seed should be generally dispers’d into all parts
where there is a corruption begun, unless we may rationally suppose, that
this seed being so exceeding small, and consequently exceeding light, is
thereby taken up, and carried to and fro in the Air into every place, and
by the falling drops of rain is wash’d down out of it, and so dispers’d
into all places, and there onely takes root and propagates, where it finds
a convenient soil or matrix for it to thrive in; so if we will have it to
proceed from corruption, it is not less difficult to conceive,
First, how the corruption of any Vegetable, much less of any Stone or
Brick, should be the Parent of so curiously figur’d, and so perfect a Plant
as this is. But here indeed, I cannot but add, that it seems rather to be a
product of the Rain in those bodies where it is stay’d, then of the very
bodies themselves, since I have found it growing on Marble, and Flint, but
always the _Microscope_, if not the naked eye, would discover some little
hole of Dirt in which it was rooted.
Next, how the corruption of each of those exceedingly differing bodies
should all conspire to the production of the same Plant, that is, that
Stones, Bricks, Wood, or vegetable substances, and Bones, Leather, Horns,
or animate substances, unless we may with some plausibleness say, that Air
and Water are the coadjutors, or _menstruums_, all kinds of
_putrifactions_, and that thereby the bodies (though whil’st they retain’d
their substantial forms, were of exceeding differing natures, yet) since
they are dissolv’d and mixt into another, they may be very _Homogeneous_,
they being almost resolv’d again into Air, Water, and Earth; retaining,
perhaps, one part of their vegetative faculty yet entire, which meeting
with congruous assistants, such as the heat of the Air, and the fluidity of
the Water, and such like coadjutors and conveniences, acquires a certain
vegetation for a time, wholly differing perhaps from that kind of
vegetation it had before.
To explain my meaning a little better by a gross Similitude:
Suppose a curious piece of Clock-work, that had had several motions and
contrivances in it, which, when in order, would all have mov’d in their
design’d methods and Periods. We will further suppose, by some means, that
this Clock comes to be broken, brused, or otherwise disordered, so that
several parts of it being dislocated, are impeded, and so stand still, and
not onely hinder its own progressive motion, and produce not the effect
which they were design’d for, but because the other parts also have a
dependence upon them, put a stop to their motion likewise; and so the whole
Instrument becomes unserviceable, and not fit for any use. This Instrument
afterwards, by some shaking and tumbling, and throwing up and down, comes
to have several of its parts shaken out, and several of its curious
motions, and contrivances, and particles all fallen asunder; here a Pin
falls out, and there a Pillar, and here a Wheel, and there a Hammer, and a
Spring, and the like, and among the rest, away falls those parts also which
were brused and disorder’d, and had all this while impeded the motion of
all the rest; hereupon several of those other motions that yet remain,
whole springs were not quite run down, being now at liberty, begin each of
them to move, thus or thus, but quite after another method then before,
there being many regulating parts and the like, fallen away and lost. Upon
this, the Owner, who chances to hear and observe some of these effects,
being ignorant of the Watch-makers Art, wonders what is betid his Clock,
and presently imagines that some Artist has been at work, and has set his
Clock in order, and made a new kind of Instrument of it, but upon examining
circumstances, he finds there was no such matter, but that the casual
slipping out of a Pin had made several parts of his Clock fall to pieces,
and that thereby the obstacle that all this while hindred his Clock,
together with other usefull parts were fallen out, and so his Clock was set
at liberty. And upon winding up those springs again when run down, he finds
his Clock to go, but quite after another manner then it was wont
heretofore.
And thus may it be perhaps in the business of Moss, and Mould, and
Mushroms, and several other spontaneous kinds of vegetations, which may be
caus’d by a vegetative principle, which was a coadjutor to the life and
growth of the greater Vegetable, and was by the destroying of the life of
it stopt and impeded in performing its office; but afterwards, upon a
further corruption of several parts that had all the while impeded it, the
heat of the Sun winding up, as it were, the spring, sets it again into a
vegetative motion, and this being single, and not at all regulated as it
was before (when a part of that greater _machine_ the pristine vegetable)
is mov’d after quite a differing manner, and produces effects very
differing from those it did before.
But this I propound onely as a conjecture, not that I am more enclin’d to
this _Hypothesis_ then the seminal, which upon good reason I ghess to be
Mechanical also, as I may elsewhere more fully shew: But because I may, by
this, hint a possible way how this appearance may be solv’d; supposing we
should be driven to confess from certain Experiments and Observations made,
that such or such Vegetables were produc’d out of the corruption of
another, without any concurrent seminal principle (as I have given some
reason to suppose, in the description of a _Microscopical_ Mushrome)
without derogating at all from the infinite wisdom of the Creator. For this
accidental production, as I may call it, does manifest as much, if not very
much more, of the excellency of his contrivance as any thing in the more
perfect vegetative bodies of the world, even as the accidental motion of
the _Automaton_ does make the owner see, that there was much more
contrivance in it then at first he imagin’d. But of this I have added more
in the description of Mould, and the Vegetables on Rose leaves, &c. those
being much more likely to have their original from such a cause then this
which I have here described, in the 13. _Scheme_, which indeed I cannot
conceive otherwise of, then as of a most perfect Vegetable, wanting nothing
of the perfections of the most conspicuous and vastest Vegetables of the
world, and to be of a rank so high, as that it may very properly be
reckon’d with the tall Cedar of _Lebanon_, as that Kingly Botanist has
done.
We know there may be as much curiosity of contrivance, and excellency of
form in a very small Pocket-clock, that takes not up an Inch square of
room, as there may be in a Church-clock that fills a whole room; And I know
not whether all the contrivances and _Mechanisms_ requisite to a perfect
Vegetable, may not be crowded into an exceedingly less room then this of
Moss, as I have heard of a striking Watch so small, that it serv’d for a
Pendant in a Ladies ear; and I have already given you the description of a
Plant growing on Rose leaves, that is abundantly smaller then Moss;
insomuch, that neer 1000. of them would hardly make the bigness of one
single Plant of Moss. And by comparing the bulk of Moss, with the bulk of
the biggest kind of Vegetable we meet with in Story (of which kind we find
in some hotter climates, as _Guine_, and _Brasile_, the stock or body of
some Trees to be twenty foot in Diameter, whereas the body or stem of Moss,
for the most part, is not above one sixtieth part of an Inch) we shall find
that the bulk of the one will exceed the bulk of the other, no less then
2985984 Millions, or 2985984000000, and supposing the production on a Rose
leaf to be a Plant, we shall have of those _Indian_ Plants to exceed a
production of the same Vegetable kingdom no less then 1000 times the former
number; so prodigiously various are the works of the Creator, and so
All-sufficient is he to perform what to man would seem unpossible, they
being both alike easie to him, even as one day, and a thousand years are to
him as one and the same time.
I have taken notice of such an infinite variety of those smaller kinds of
vegetations, that should I have described every one of them, they would
almost have fill’d a Volume, and prov’d bigg enough to have made a new
Herbal, such multitudes are there to be found in moist hot weather,
especially in the Summer time, on all kind of putrifying substances, which,
whether they do more properly belong to the _Classis_ of _Mushrooms_, or
_Moulds_, or _Mosses_, I shall not now dispute, there being some that seem
more properly of one kind, others of another, their colours and magnitudes
being as much differing as their Figures and substances.
Nay, I have observ’d, that putting fair Water (whether Rain-water or
Pump-water, or _May-dew_ or Snow-water, it was almost all one) I have often
observ’d, I say, that this Water would, with a little standing, tarnish and
cover all about the sides of the Glass that lay under water, with a lovely
green; but though I have often endeavour’d to discover with my _Microscope_
whether this green were like Moss, or long striped Sea-weed, or any other
peculiar form, yet so ill and imperfect are our _Microscopes_, that I could
not certainly discriminate any.
Growing Trees also, and any kinds of Woods, Stones, Bones, &c. that have
been long expos’d to the Air and Rain, will be all over cover’d with a
greenish scurff, which will very much foul and green any kind of cloaths
that are rubb’d against it; viewing this, I could not certainly perceive in
many parts of it any determinate form, though in many I could perceive a
Bed as ’twere of young Moss, but in other parts it look’d almost like green
bushes, and very confus’d, but always of what ever irregular Figures the
parts appear’d of, they were always green, and seem’d to be either some
Vegetable, or to have some vegetating principle.
* * * * *
Observ. XXII. _Of common _Sponges_, and several other _Spongie_ fibrous
bodies._
A Sponge is commonly reckon’d among the _Zoophyts_, or Plant Animals; and
the _texture_ of it, which the _Microscope_ discovers, seems to confirm it;
for it is of a form whereof I never observ’d any other Vegetable, and
indeed, it seems impossible that any should be of it, for it consists of an
infinite number of small short _fibres_, or nervous parts, much of the same
bigness, curiously jointed or contex’d together in the form of a Net, as is
more plainly manifest by the little Draught which I have added, in the
third _Figure_ of the IX. _Scheme_, of a piece of it, which you may
perceive represents a confus’d heap of the fibrous parts curiously jointed
and implicated. The joints are, for the most part, where three _fibres_
onely meet, for I have very seldom met with any that had four.
At these joints there is no one of the three that seems to be the stock
whereon the other grow, but each of the _fibres_ are, for the most part, of
an equal bigness, and seem each of them to have an equal share in the
joint; the _fibres_ are all of them much about the same bigness, not
smaller towards the top of the Sponge, and bigger neerer the bottom or
root, as is usuall in Plants, the length of each between the joints, is
very irregular and different; the distance between some two joints, being
ten or twelve times more then between some others.
Nor are the joints regular, and of an _equitriagonal Figure_, but, for the
most part, the three _fibres_ so meet, that they compose three angles very
differing all of them from one another.
The meshes likewise, and holes of this reticulated body, are not less
various and irregular: some _bilateral_, others _trilateral_, and
_quadrilateral_ Figures; nay, I have observ’d some meshes to have 5, 6, 7,
8, or 9. sides, and some to have onely one, so exceeding various is the
_Lusus Naturæ_ in this body.
As to the outward appearance of this Vegetative body, they are so usuall
everywhere, that I need not describe them, consisting of a soft and porous
substance, representing a Lock, sometimes a fleece of Wool; but it has
besides these small _microscopical_ pores which lie between the _fibres_, a
multitude of round pores or holes, which, from the top of it, pierce into
the body, and sometimes go quite through to the bottom.
I have observ’d many of these Sponges, to have included likewise in the
midst of their fibrous contextures, pretty large friable stones, which must
either have been inclos’d whil’st this Vegetable was in formation, or
generated in those places after it was perfectly shap’d. The later of which
seems the more improbable, because I did not find that any of these stony
substances were perforated with the _fibres_ of the Sponge.
I have never seen nor been enform’d of the true manner of the growing of
Sponges on the Rock; whether they are found to increase from little to
great, like Vegetables, that is, part after part, or like Animals, all
parts equally growing together; or whether they be _matrices_ or feed-baggs
of any kind of Fishes, or some kind of watry Insect; or whether they are at
any times more soft and tender, or of another nature and texture, which
things, if I knew how, I should much desire to be informed of: but from a
cursory view that I at first made with my _Microscope_, and some other
trials, I supposed it to be some Animal substance cast out, and fastned
upon the Rocks in the form of a froth, or _congeries_ of bubbles, like that
which I have often observ’d on Rosemary, and other Plants (wherein is
included a little Insect) that all the little films which divide these
bubbles one from another, did presently, almost after the substance began
to grow a little harder, break, and leave onely the thread behind, which
might be, as ’twere, the angle or thread between the bubbles, that the
great holes or pores observable in these Sponges were made by the eruption
of the included _Heterogeneous_ substance (whether air, or some other body,
for many other fluid bodies will do the same thing) which breaking out of
the lesser, were collected into very large bubbles, and so might make their
way out of the Sponge, and in their passage might leave a round cavity; and
if it were large, might carry up with it the adjacent bubbles, which may be
perceiv’d at the outside of the Sponge, if it be first throughly wetted,
and sufferr’d to plump itself into its natural form, or be then wrung dry,
and suffer’d to expand it self again, which it will freely do whil’st
moist: for when it has thus plump’d it self into its natural shape and
dimensions, ’tis obvious enough that the mouths of the larger holes have a
kind of lip or rising round about them, but the other smaller pores have
little or none. It may further be found, that each of these great pores has
many other small pores below, that are united unto it, and help to
constitute it, almost like so many rivulets or small streams that
contribute to the maintenance of a large River. Nor from this _Hypothesis_
would it have been difficult to explicate, how those little branches of
_Coral_, smal _Stones_, _shells_, and the like, come to be included by
these frothy bodies: But this indeed was but a conjecture; and upon a more
accurate enquiry into the form of it with the _Microscope_, it seems not to
be the true origine of them; for whereas Sponges have onely three arms
which join together at each knot, if they had been generated from bubbles
they must have had four.
But that they are Animal Substances, the _Chymical_ examination of them
seems to manifest, they affording a volatil Salt and spirit, like
_Harts-Horn_, as does also their great strength and toughness, and their
smell when burn’d in the Fire or a Candle, which has a kind of fleshy sent,
not much unlike to hair. And having since examin’d several Authors
concerning them, among others; I find this account given by _Bellonius_, in
the XI. _Chap._ of his 2d Book, _De Aquatilibus_. _Spongiæ recentes_, says
he, _à siccis longe diversæ, scopulis aquæ marinæ ad duos vel tres cubitos,
nonnunquam quatuor tantum digitos immersis, ut fungi arboribus adhærent,
sordido quodam succo aut mucosa potius sanie ræfertæ, usque adeò fœtida,
ut vel eminus nauseam excitet, continetur autem iis cavernis, quas inanes
in siccis & lotis Spongiis cernimus: Putris pulmonis modo nigræ
conspiciuntur, verùm quæ in sublimi aquæ nascuntur multo magis opaca
nigredine suffusæ sunt. Vivere quidem Spongias adhærendo _Aristoteles_
censet: absolute vero minime: sensumque aliquem habere, vel eo argumento
(inquit) credantur, quod difficillime abstrahantur, nisi clanculum agatur:
Atq; ad avulsoris accessum ita contrahantur, ut eas evellere difficile sit,
quod idem etiam faciunt quoties flatus tempestatésque urgent. Puto autem
illis succum sordidum quem supra diximus carnis loco à natura attributum
fuisse: atque meatibus latioribus tanquam intestinis aut interaneis uti.
Cæterum pars ea quæ Spongiæ cautibus adhærent est tanquam folii petiolus, à
quo veluti collum quoddam gracile incipit: quod deinde in latitudinem
diffusum capitis globum facit. Recentibus nihil est fistulosum, hæsitantque
tanquam radicibus. Superne omnes propemodum meatus concreti latent: inferne
verò quaterni aut quini patent, per quos eas sugere existimamus_. From
which Description, they seem to be a kind of Plant-Animal that adheres to a
Rock, and these small _fibres_ or threads which we have described, seem to
have been the Vessels which (’tis very probable) were very much bigger
whil’st the _Interstitia_ were fill’d (as he affirms) with a mucous, pulpy
or fleshy substance; but upon the drying were shrunk into the bigness they
now appear.
The texture of it is such, that I have not yet met with any other body in
the world that has the like, but onely one of a larger sort of Sponge
(which is preserv’d in the _Museum Harveanum_ belonging to the most
Illustrious and most learned Society of the _Physicians_ of _London_) which
is of a horney, or rather of a _petrify’d_ substance. And of this indeed,
the texture and make is exactly the same with common Sponges, but onely
that both the holes and the _fibres_, or texture of it is exceedingly much
bigger, for some of the holes were above an Inch and half over, and the
_fibres_ and _texture_ of it was bigg enough to be distinguished easily
with ones eye, but conspicuously with an ordinary single _Microscope_. And
these indeed, seem’d to have been the habitation of some Animal; and
examining _Aristotle_, I find a very consonant account hereunto, namely,
that he had known a certain little Animal, call’d _Pinnothera_, like a
Spider, to be bred in those caverns of a Sponge, from within which, by
opening and closing those holes, he insnares and catches the little Fishes;
and in another place he says, That ’tis very confidently reported, that
there are certain Moths or Worms that reside in the cavities of a Sponge,
and are there nourished: Notwithstanding all which Histories, I think it
well worth the enquiring into the History and nature of a Sponge, it
seeming to promise some information of the Vessels in Animal substances,
which (by reason of the solidity of the interserted flesh that is not
easily remov’d, without destroying also those interspers’d Vessels) are
hitherto undiscover’d; whereas here in a Sponge, the _Parenchyma_, it
seems, is but a kind of mucous gelly, which is very easily and clearly
wash’d away.
The reason that makes me imagine, that there may probably be some such
texture in Animal substances, is, that examining the texture of the
filaments of tann’d Leather, I find it to be much of the same nature and
strength of a Sponge; and with my _Microscope_, I have observ’d many such
joints and knobs, as I have described in Sponges, the _fibres_ also in the
hollow of several sorts of Bones, after the Marrow has been remov’d, I have
found somewhat to resemble this texture, though, I confess, I never yet
found any texture exactly the same, nor any for curiosity comparable to it.
The filaments of it are much smaller then those of Silk, and through the
_Microscope_ appear very neer as transparent, nay, some parts of them I
have observ’d much more.
Having examin’d also several kinds of Mushroms, I finde their texture to be
somewhat of this kind, that is, to consist of an infinite company of small
filaments, every way contex’d and woven together, so as to make a kind of
cloth, and more particularly, examining a piece of Touch-wood (which is a
kind _Jews-ear_, or Mushrom, growing here in _England_ also, on several
sorts of Trees, such as Elders, Maples, Willows, &c. and is commonly call’d
by the name of _Spunk_; but that we meet with to be sold in Shops, is
brought from beyond Seas) I found it to be made of an exceeding delicate
texture: For the substance of it feels, and looks to the naked eye, and may
be stretch’d any way, exactly like a very fine piece of _Chamois_ Leather,
or wash’d Leather, but it is of somewhat a browner hew, and nothing neer so
strong; but examining it with my _Microscope_, I found it of somewhat
another make then any kind of Leather; for whereas both _Chamois_, and all
other kinds of Leather I have yet view’d, consist of an infinite company of
filaments, somewhat like bushes interwoven one within another, that is, of
bigger parts or stems, as it were, and smaller branchings that grow out of
them; or like a heap of Ropes ends, where each of the larger Ropes by
degrees seem to split or untwist, into many smaller Cords, and each of
those Cords into smaller Lines, and those Lines into Threads, &c. and these
strangely intangled, or interwoven one within another: The texture of this
Touch-wood seems more like that of a Lock or a Fleece of Wool, for it
consists of an infinite number of small filaments, all of them, as farr as
I could perceive, of the same bigness like those of a Sponge, but that the
_filaments_ of this were not a twentieth part of the bigness of those of a
Sponge; and I could not so plainly perceive their joints, or their manner
of interweaving, though, as farr as I was able to discern with that
_Microscope_ I had, I suppose it to have some kind of resemblance, but the
joints are nothing neer so thick, nor without much trouble visible.
The filaments I could plainly enough perceive to be even, round,
cylindrical, transparent bodies, and to cross each other every way, that
is, there were not more seem’d to lie _horizontally_ then _perpendicularly_
and thwartway, so that it is somewhat difficult to conceive how they
should grow in that manner. By tearing off a small piece of it, and looking
on the ragged edge, I could among several of those _fibres_ perceive small
joints, that is, one of those hairs split into two, each of the same
bigness with the other out of which they seem’d to grow, but having not
lately had an opportunity of examining their manner of growth, I cannot
positively affirm any thing of them.
But to proceed, The swelling of Sponges upon wetting, and the rising of the
Water in it above the surface of the Water that it touches, are both from
the same cause, of which an account is already given in the sixth
Observation.
The substance of them indeed, has so many excellent properties, scarce to
be met with in any other body in the world, that I have often wondered that
so little use is made of it, and those onely vile and sordid; certainly, if
it were well consider’d, it would afford much greater conveniencies.
That use which the Divers are said to make of it, seems, if true, very
strange, but having made trial of it my self, by dipping a small piece of
it in very good Sallet-oyl, and putting it in my mouth, and then keeping my
mouth and nose under water, I could not find any such thing; for I was as
soon out of breath as if I had had no Sponge, nor could I fetch my breath
without taking in water at my mouth; but I am very apt to think, that were
there a contrivance whereby the expir’d air might be forc’d to pass through
a wet or oyly Sponge before it were again inspir’d, it might much cleanse,
and strain away from the Air divers fuliginous and other noisome steams,
and the dipping of it in certain liquors might, perhaps, so renew that
property in the Air which it loses in the Lungs, by being breath’d, that
one square foot of Air might last a man for respiration much longer,
perhaps, then ten will now serve him of common Air.
* * * * *