S I made choice of a Garden-Bean, to shew the manner of the Vegetation of the Seed: so I shall take an Aprecock, as very apt and convenient, to observe and represent the Method which Nature taketh in its Generation.
2. §. In order to do this, the first thing that is to be done, is to make a fit Uterus. Both to keep the Membranes of the Fœtus warm, and succulent, till it be formed: and to preserve and secure the Fœtus it self afterwards, till it comes to be born into the Ground.
3. §. For this purpose, the Pulp and Stone of the Fruit are both necessary; but primarily the Stone: the Meat or Pulp being no otherwise necessary, but because the Stone cannot be made without it; the petrifying of that Parenchyma which is the Ground of the Stone, being effected, by the sinking or the Tartar from the Pulp thereinto.
4. §. And that, at the first, the Ground of the Stone, is a distinct, but soft Parenchyma; is evident in the cuting of a young Aprecock. Of which, also a slice cut off, with a Rasor, and viewed through a good Glass, sheweth it to be composed of Bladders, as the Pulp it self. Tab. 82. Only, whereas many of those of the Pulp are large, now about as big as a white Pepper-Corn: these are no bigger than a Mustard-Seed. But as the Parenchyma hardens into a Stone, these Bladders are all gradually filled up, and disappear.
5. §. This Parenchyma is derived immediately from the Pith, as the Pulp is from the Barque; and makes the far greater part of the Stone. ’Tis covered all over within, with a very thin Lining; derived, not from the Pith but the Parenchyma which covers the Seed-Branch, upon its first entrance within the hollow of the Stone. This Lining is of a close substance; yet composed of Bladders, exquisitely small and hardly visible. By which means, it soon becomes a very hard and dry Body; Tab. 80. and is hereby fitted, both to promote the induration of the rest of the Stone; and the seasonable drying, and so, the shrinking up, of the Covers of the Seed, to make room for its Growth.
6. §. The Stone being made hard and dry; it could never be so sufficiently softned by lying under ground, but that, it would keep the Seed a perpetual prisoner, unless it were also made pretty easily to cleave in two. For which purpose, the Skin of the Fruit doth observably conduce. Tab. 80. For in a Slice of a young Aprecock cut transversly with a very sharp knife, it may be seen, especially with the help of a Glass, to be doubled inward from the two Lips of the Fruit, and so to be continued, not only through the Pulp, but also through the Stone it self, into the hollow of the same, where it meets, and is united with the Lining thereof. Whereby, as it further helps to the drying and hardning of the Stone; so also renders it cleavable in that part, where it runs through it. And therefore, whereas towards the Stalk, it goes no farther than to the Seed-Branch, and so but half way through the Stone: towards the Top of the Fruit, where the Radicle stands, and where the Stone begins to cleave, it runs quite through it.
7. §. Nature having thus provided a convenient Uterus, She next taketh care about the Membranes of the Fœtus. These are Three apparently distinct, and in many respects different one from another.
8. §. The outer Membrane is derived from the Parenchyma which surrounds the Seed-Branch; which, upon its entry into the hollow of the Stone, is expanded, as it were, into two Bladders, one within another; Tab. 80. whereof, one becomes the Lining of the Stone; the other, this outer Membrane: as is best seen by cuting a young Aprecock, when it is about half an Inch long, down through the midle, or from the Seat of the Flower to the Stalk, between the two Lips.
9. §. This outer Membrane, at this age, hath a good full and frim Body, about 1/12ᵗʰ of an Inch thick, or through an ordinary Glass, half an Inch, where it is thickest, as at the Sides and the greater end: the Poynt being thinner, for the more easy eruption of the Radicle into the Earth. Tab. 80. Composed of Bladders, through an ordinary Glass, about as big, as a Colewort-Seed.
10. §. Throughout this Membrane, the Vessels conteined in the Seed-Branch are distributed. Beginning a little below the smaller end of the Coat or Membrane, they thence fetch their circuit both ways round about, just beneath the Surface of the Membrane, and at last, meet in the midle of the greater end, where they are all inosculated, so as to make a kind of umbilical Node. Tab. 80. From whence they strike deeper into it, and at last, into the midle Membrane, in which they presently become invisible. By these Vessels, the Sap is brought and spewed into the midle Membrane. So that the outer Membrane seemeth, in some respects, to be answerable to the Placenta in Animals.
11. §. The midle Membrane, is derived from the bottome of the Outer. From whence especially, but also round about, the Bladders hereof (all angular) are more and more amplified towards the Centre; most of them being at least two hundred times biger, than those of the Outer Membrane: Tab. 80. whereby it looks, through a Glass, not unlike a Coome full of Hony; or in regard of their great transparency, like a company of little Crystal Pans full of a pure Lympha.
12. §. This Midle Membrane, is properly so called, from the state and condition it hath, upon the Augmentation of the Seed, at which time, it obteins the nature of an Involucrum. But originally, it is every where entire, without any Hollow, filling up the Cavity of the Outer Membrane, like a soft and delicate Pulp. After a short time, there appears in it a small Ductus or Chanel; which runs from the bottom to the top, like an Axis, through the midle of it.Tab. 81. At first, no wider than to receive the Hair of a Mans Head; not visible, except in a slice hereof cut transversly, and viewed in a Glass. Being grown a little wider, it may be seen, if the Membrane be dexterously cut by the length. At which time, it is also dilated into two Oval Cavities, one at each end: which are as two little Cisterns, whereinto a most pure Lympha continually owzeth, and is therein reserved for the nourishment of the Seed; and through the Chanel which runs between the Cisterns is emptied out of one Cistern into another, according as the Seed or the Inmost Membrane hath need of it; i. e. as the Weather and other Circumstances do more or less accelerate their Growth, and so render the Lympha useful to them.
13. §. A few days after this, the Innermost Membrane begins to appear; growing, like a soft Node or Bud, out of the upper Cistern; to the lower end of which it is joyned by a short and tender Stalk, Tab. 81. from whence it is produced into a Conick-oval Figure, answerable to that of the Cistern.
14. §. This Membrane, though soft and full of Sap, yet being compared with the midlemost, is a close and compact Body, composed of Bladders above 300 times smaller than they are in that. Whereby, as the Seed is so well guarded, as not to be supplyed with any part of the Lympha, but the purest: so neither with any more of this, than will suffice, without the danger of making an Inundation out of so great a Lake.
15. §. This Membrane, if it be pulled with a most steady hand, and very gently, upwards, it will draw a small transparent String after it to the bottom of the Midle Membrane: The said String though for the greater part, Parenchymous, yet being strengthened with the admixture of some Lignous Fibres; not otherwise visible in either of these two Membranes. So that they seem, to be a small portion of those which are inosculated at the bottome of the Outer Membrane, and thence produced through the midlemost, underneath the Chanel, till at last they break forth into the upper Cistern, where they form this inner Membrane: a piece of close-wrought Work, suitable to the incomparable fineness of all the Stuff out of which it is made.
16. §. The same Membrane is originally entire, as the Midlemost: but being grown to about the bigness of a Carvi-Seed, becomes a little hollow near the Cone. And the Lignous Fibers abovesaid, Tab. 81. fetching their compass from the Base, shoot forth into the Cone; and so make a very small Node therein, for the first Essay towards the Generation of the Seed. The said Fibers being thus spun out, to the utmost degree of fineness for this purpose.
17. §. This Node, being grown about ⅕ᵗʰ part as big as a Cheese-Mite; it begins next to be divided by a little indenture at the Top. Tab. 81. Which growing by degrees still deeper, the Node is hereby at length distinguished into two Lobes or thick Leavs.
18. §. So soon as these are finished, their Basis begins afterwards to be contracted, Tab. 81. and so to be formed into a Radicle or that part of the Seed which becomes the Root. As the Stalks of Fruits do grow lesser, while the Fruits themselves are expanded. So that in this estate, the Radicle is, as it were, the Stalk of the Seed.
19. §. At this time, the Seed being extream small, the Lobes are not so manageable as to be separated one from the other. But it is most reasonable to suppose that so soon as the Radicle is finished, the next step, is the pushing forth of another Node, between the Lobes, in order to the making of a Bud, and so the perfection of the Seed.
20. §. This being done or in doing, the Radicle or Stalk of the Seed, containing still more and more at the bottome, hangs at the Inner Membrane, only by an extream small and short Ligament or Navel-String. Which at last, also breaks; and so the Seed, as Fruits when they are ripe, falls off and lies loose in the Iner Membrane; Tab. 81. this gradually shrinking up and so becoming more hollow, to make room for the further Growth of the Seed.