Micrographia Part 12

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 pa.s.sages of Animals, that open and give pa.s.sage to the contain'd fluid juices one way, and shut themselves, and impede the pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sages, as well as in those of Animal bodies, very many appropriated Instruments and contrivances, whereby to bring her designs and end to pa.s.s, 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 _Phaenomena_ 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 Ill.u.s.trious 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 th.o.r.n.y p.r.i.c.kles, 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, pa.s.sing through the leaf, divides it so length-ways that the outer-side is broader then the inner next the sprig, but little _fibres_ pa.s.sing 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 Gla.s.s, which I therefore call the _humble Plant_.

The other two, which do never fall, nor do any of their branches flagg 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 p.r.i.c.kle, 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 Sh.e.l.l betwixt two and three Inches below it, there was rubbed on a strong sented 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 Sh.e.l.l alter'd, and the leaves expanded as before, and closing upon the touch.

Upon the application of the Sun-beams by a Burning-gla.s.s, 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 Gla.s.s 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 Gla.s.ses 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 _Ca.n.a.les_, 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 _Phaenomena_, 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_, _Mosscatum_, or _Musk-gra.s.s_ 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 t.i.ttle 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 k.n.o.bs, of a kind of yellowish red gummy substance, out of which I perceiv'd there sprung mult.i.tudes 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 dest.i.tute, 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 const.i.tuent 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 k.n.o.bs of a red gummous substance.

From this putrify'd scabb 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 _putrifactive_ 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 mult.i.tudes 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 n.o.ble, 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 princ.i.p.al 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 mult.i.tudes 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 const.i.tuting 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 pa.s.sages, 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 _purifaction_, 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 const.i.tution 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 _trans.m.u.ted_ 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 const.i.tution 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 capabale 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 cl.u.s.ters; so that I have found in one cl.u.s.ter, 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, mult.i.tudes 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 mult.i.tudes of small long cylindrical and transparent stalks, not exactly streight, but a little bended with the weight of a round and white k.n.o.b that grew on the top of each of them; many of these k.n.o.bs 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 const.i.tution, 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 cl.u.s.ter, 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 b.a.l.l.s 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 k.n.o.bs 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.