The anatomy of plants

O Philosophize, is, To render the Causes and Ends of Things. No man, therefore, that denieth God can do this, Truly. Theology the Beginning and End of Philosophy. For the taking away of the first Cause, maketh all things Contingent. Now, of that which is Contingent, although there may be an Event; yet there can be no Reason or End: so that Men should then study, That, which is not. So the Causes of Things, if they are Contingent, they cannot be Constant. For that which is the Cause of This, now; if it be so Contingently, it may not be the Cause hereafter: and no Physical Proposition, grounded upon the Constancy and Certainty of Things, could have any foundation. He, therefore, that philosophiseth, and denieth God, playeth a childish Game.

6. §. Therefore, as the Original Being of all Things, is the most proper Demonstration of Gods Power: So the successive Generations, and Operations of Things are the most proper Demonstration of his Wisdom. For if we should suppose,that God did now make, or do any Thing, by any Thing; then, no Effect would be produced by a Natural Cause: and consequently, He would still be upon the Work of Creation: which yet Sacred Scripture assureth us, He resteth from. And we might exspect the Formation of a Child, in an Egg, as well as in a Womb; or of a Chicken, out of a Stone, as an Egg: And all Sorts of Animals, as well as Plants, might propagate their Species, without Coition: and the like. For Infinite Power, needeth not make any difference in the Things it undertakes to manage. But in that, these Things are not only made, but so made, that is, according to such certain Natural Laws, as to produce their Natural Effects; here is the Sensible and Illustrious Evidence of his Wisdom. Wherefore as the Wisdom of Government, is not seen, by the King his interposing Himself in every Case; but in the contrivance of the Laws, and Constitution of Ministers in such sort, that it shall be as effectually determin’d, as if he did so indeed: So the more complicated and vastly Numerous, we allow the Natural Causes of Things to be; the more duely we conceive of that Wisdom, which thus disposeth of them all, to their several Effects: All Things being thus, as Ministers in the Hands of God, conspiring together a Thousand Ways, towards a Thousand Effects and Ends, at one time; and that with the same certainty, as if he did prepose to each, the same Omnipotent Fiat, which he used at the Creation of the World.

7. §. THIS Universal Monarchy, as it is eminently Visible in all other Particular Oeconomies; so is it, no less, in that of Vegetables. Infinite Occurrences, and secret Intrigues, ’tis made up of; of which we cannot skill, but by the help of manifold Means; and those, in the foregoing Idea, have been lately proposed. The Divine Wisdom seen in the Growth of Plants; if we observe, Wherein, although some Experiments have been briefly touch’d: yet that which I have hitherto chiefly prosecuted, hath been the Anatomical Part; and that not throughly neither. Notwithstanding, so far as Observations already made will conduct us, I shall endeavour to go. And if, for the better clearing of the way, I have intermixed some Conjectures; I think they are not meerly such, but for which I have layd down some Grounds, and of which, the Series also of the following Discourse, may be some further proof.

First, How the Ground is prepared. 8. §. LET US say then, that the Root of a Plant being lodged in some Soil, for its more convenient growth; ’tis necessary the Soil should be duly prepared for it. The Rain, therefore, falling and soaking into the Soyl, somewhat diluteth the Dissoluble Principles therein contained; and renders them more easily communicable to the Root: Being as a Menstruum, which extracteth those Principles, from the other greater and useless part of the Soil.

13. §. The Principles being thus farther resolved and subtilized, would presently exhale away, if the Rain, again, did not prevent. Which, therefore, falling upon and soaking through the Ground, is as a fresh Menstruum, saturate or impregnate with many of them. And as it still sinketh lower, it carries them along with it self, from the Superficial, to the Deeper parts of the Ground: thus, not only maturing those parts also, which, otherwise, would be more lean and cold; but therein likewise, laying up and securing a Store, more gradually and thriftily to be bestowed upon the Upper parts again, as they need.

14. §. And Autumn having laid up the Store, Winter following thereupon, doth, as it were, lock the doors upon it. In which time, some warmer Intervals, serve further and gradually to mature the stored Principles, without hazard of their being Exhaled. And the Spring returning, sets the doors open again, with warmer and more constant Sun, with gentle and frequent Rain, fully resolves the said Principles; and so furnisheth a plentiful Diet, for all kinds of Vegetables: being a Composition of Water chiefly, wherein are resolved, some portions of Earth, Salt, Acid, Oyl, Spirit, and Aer; or other Bodies of Affinity herewith.

Then, How the Sap is imbib’d, and distributed to the several Parts. 15. §. THE ROOT standing in the Ground thus prepared, and being always surrounded with a Barque, which consisteth chiefly of a Parenchymous and Spongy Body;⁠[3] it will thus, as Sponges do, naturally suck up the watry parts of the Soil impregnate with the said Principles. Which Principles notwithstanding, being in proportion with the watry parts, but few, and also more Essential;⁠[4] therefore in this Parenchymous Part, are they never much discovered, either by Colour, Taste, or Smell. As it is probable, that some distilled Waters, which discover nothing, to Sense, of the Plants from which they are distilled, may yet, in part, retain their Faculties. And it is known, that many Bodies; as Crocus Metallorum, convey many of their parts into the Menstruum, without any sensible alteration thereof. So Frost and Snow have neither Taste nor Smell; yet from their Figures, ’tis evident, that there are divers kinds of Saline Principles incorporated with them; or at least, such Principles as are common to them and divers kinds of Salts.

16. §. The entrance of this Impregnate Water or Sap is not without difference, but by the Regulation of the intervening Skin; being thereby strained and rendred more pure: the Skin, according to the thickness⁠[5] or closeness thereof, becoming sometimes only as a brown paper, sometimes as a Cotton, and sometimes as a Bag of Leather to the transient Sap, as the nature of it doth require. By which it is also moderated, lest the Barque, being spongy, should suck it up too fast, and so the Root should be, as it were, surcharged by a Plethora. And divers of the Succiferous Vessels being mixed herewith⁠[6] and lying next the Soil, usually more or less mortified, and so their Principles somewhat resolved; the Sap is hereby better specified, and further tinctured; such parts of the Sap best entring, as are most agreeable to those Principles; which the Sap also carries off, in some part, as it passeth into the Barque.

17. §. The Sap thus strained, though it be pure, and consisteth of Essential parts; yet being compounded of heterogeneous ones; and received into the Parenchyma of the Barque a laxe and spongy Body, they will now easily and mildly ferment. Whereby they will be yet further prepared, and so more easily insinuate themselves into all the Bladders of the said Parenchyma; swelling and dilating it as far as the Continuity of its parts will bear. Whereupon, partly from the continued entrance of fresh Sap, and partly by a Motion or Pressure of Restitution in the swollen and Tensed Bladders of the Parenchyma, the Sap is forced thence into the other parts of the Root.

18. §. And because the Parenchyma is in no place openly and Visibly Pervious, but is every where composed of an Infinite Number of small Bladders⁠[7]; the Sap, therefore, is not only fermented therein, and fitted for Separation; but, as it passeth through it, is every part of it, strained an Hundred times over, from Bladder to Bladder.

19. §. The Sap thus fermented, and strained, is distributed to the other Organical Parts, according as the several Principles of This, are agreeable to those whereof the said Organical Parts consist. As the Sap therefore passeth from Bladder to Bladder, such Principles as are agreeable to those of the Fibres of the said Bladders, will adhere to, and insinuate themselves into the Body of the Fibres; sc. Watry chiefly, next Acid, then spirituous, Earthy, Aery, and Oleous.⁠[8]

20. §. And the Sap by its continual appulse and percolation, as it leaveth some parts upon the said Fibres; so as it is squeezed betwixt them from Bladder to Bladder, it licks and carries off some others from them, in some union together with it; and so is Impregnate herewith: as Water, by passing through a Mineral Vein, becomes tinctured with that Mineral.

21. §. The Sap thus Impregnate with some united Principles of the Parenchymous Fibres, passeth on to the Lignous Vessels, whereinto their correspondent Principles also enter; sc. Watry, Saline, Oleous and Earthy chiefly.⁠[9] And because the Parenchymous Principles mixed with them, are in some degree united, and so more ready to fix; some of these therefore will likewise enter into the said Vessels. Whereupon, the Alkali oleosum of the one, and the Acidum spirituosum of the other, meeting together; These, with the other Principles, all concentre, and of divers fluids, become one fixed Body, and are gradually agglutinated to the Vessels; that is, The Vessels are now nourished.

22. §. The supply of the Sap still continued, the Principles thereof will not only enter into the Body of these Parts, but also their Concaves. And the Parenchymous Fibres being wrapped about the Vessels,⁠[10] as often as the said Fibres are more turgid with their own contained Fluid, they will thereby be somewhat shortned, or contract in length; and so must needs bind upon the Vessels, and thereby, as it were, squeeze some part of the Fluid, contained both within themselves and the Vessels, back again into the Bladders.

23. §. And the Sap herein, being thus tinctured with some of the united Principles of the Vessels, divers of them will now also insinuate themselves into the Parenchymous Fibres, and be incorporated with them: Whereby, the said Fibres, which before were only relaxed and dilated, are now also nourished, and not till now. Some portion of the united Principles both of the Parenchymous and Lignous Parts, being necessary to the true nutrition of Each: As the Confusion and joynt assistance of both the Arterious and Nervous Fluids, is to the nourishment or coagulation of the Parts in Animals.

24. §. Some portion of the Sap thus doubly tinctured, is at the same time transmitted to, and enters the Body of the Aer-Vessels; consisting chiefly of Water, Aer, and Acid; and, in like manner, as in the other Parts is herein agglutinated. And the appulse and pressure of the Sap still continued, some portion hereof is also trajected into the Concaves of the said Vessels; existing therein as a most Compounded Fluid; partaking, more or less, both of the Principles and Tinctures of the other Organical Parts, and of the Aer-Vessels themselves; being as it were, a Mixed Resolution from them all.

25. §. And the Parenchymous Fibres being wrapped about These, as about the other Vessels,⁠[11] and, in like manner, binding upon them; they thus frequently squeeze part of the said contained Fluid out again: As necessary, though not to the immediate Nourishment of the Parts, yet the due Qualification of the Sap; being a Constant Aerial Ferment, successively stored up within the Aer-Vessels, and thence transfused to the Sap, in the other Organical Parts.

26. §. And that there may be a better Transition of the Sap thus tinctured, to the several Organical Parts; therefore, none of them are close set and compact within themselves, severally: For so, they would be inaccessible to the Sap, and their inward Portions, wanting a due supply of Aliment, would be starved. But the Vessels, both of Aer and Sap, being every where divided into Braced Portions, and other Parenchymous Portions, filling up the spaces every where betwixt them⁠[12]; there is therefore a free and copious communication of the Sap, (and so of all the Tinctures successively transfused into it) from Part to Part, and to every Portion of every Part: The Parenchymous Portions, running betwixt the Braces, as the smaller Vessels do throughout the Viscera, in Animals. Whereby, none of them want that Matter, which is necessary either for their Nutrition, or for the good Estate of their Contents, or for the due period of their Growth.

27. §. For the better Tempering of the several parts of the Sap, serve the Diametral Portions of the Parenchymous Body which run sometimes directly through the Barque, as in Lovage, Parsley, &c. is described and figur’d⁠[13] Which being, all or most of them, continued betwixt both the Succiferous and the Aer-Vessels, from the Circumference to the Centre; they hereby carry off a more Copious and Aerial Ferment from the One, and communicate it unto the Other. For as the Sap enters the Barque, the more liquid part, still passeth into the succulent Portions thereof; the more Aery, is separated into those White and Dryer Diametral ones; and in its passage betwixt the Portions of the Aer-Vessels, is all along communicated to them. Yet is it not a pure or simple Aer, but such as carries a Tincture with it, from the Succiferous Vessels. And therefore it is observable, That when the Diametral Portions are more distant, the Sap-Vessels run not in a Straight Line betwixt them, but are Reciprocally so inclined, as to touch upon them; as in Lovage is visible: Thereby communicating their Tincture to the Aer, as it passeth by them, through the said Diametral Portions.

28. §. By the continual appulse of fresh Sap, some, both of the aery, and of all the other parts thereof are transmitted into the Pith; where, finding more room, it will yet more kindly be digested. Especially having the advantage herein of some degree of Warmth; being herein remoter from the Soil, and, as it were, Tunn’d up within the Wood, or the Mass of surrounding Vessels. So that the Pith is a Repository of better Aliment gradually supplied to those Succiferous Vessels, which are frequently scattered up and down therein, and which ascend into the Trunk.⁠[14] But where no succiferous Vessels are mixed, herewith, it usually becomes Dryer, and is replenished with a more Aerial and Warmer Sap; whereby the growth of the Caulis is promoted, as by an Hot Bed set just under it. And in many Plants with divers knobbed Roots, the younger are more succulent, serving chiefly to feed the Stalk: the Elder are spongy and fill’d with Aer, for the fermenting of the Sap, and more early growth of the Stalk: as in little Celandine, Dogstones and all of that Kindred. And thus all the Parts have a fit Aliment provided for their Nourishment.

How the several Parts are Nourish’d and Form’d. 29. §. IN THIS Nourishment, the Principles of the Sap are, as is said, concentred and locked up one within another:⁠[15] Whence it is, that the Organical Parts, being cleansed of their Contents, have none of them any Taste or Smell, as in the Piths of Plants, Paper and Linen Cloth is evident.⁠[16] Because till by Digestion, violent Destillation, or some other way, they are resolved, they cannot act upon the Organs of those Senses. For the same reason, they are never tinctured, excepting by their Contents: and although, to the bare Eye, they frequently shew White, yet viewed through a Microscope, they all appear transparent. In like manner, as the Serum of Blood, Whites of Eggs, Tendons, Hairs and Horns themselves are transparent, and without much Smell or Taste, their Principles being, in all of them, more or less concentred: But when ever these Principles, are forcibly resolved, they are ever variously invested with all those Qualities.

30. §. And as from the Concentration of the Principles, in every Organical Part, the said Parts do thus far, all agree: So, from the Predominion of the Principles of each Part, the rest are controuled, not only to a Concentration, but an Assimilation also; whereby, the Specifick Differences, of the several Organical Parts, are preserved. Hence the succiferous Vessels are always Tough and very Pliable; for so are all Barques, wherein these Vessels abound; so is a Handful of Flax, which is nothing else but a heap of the succiferous Vessels in the Barque of that Plant. For besides Water, and Earth, an Alkaline Salt and Oyl are, as is said, the predominant Principles of these Vessels.⁠[17] It is then the Oyl, chiefly, by which these Vessels are Tough: for being of a tenacious Nature, by taking hold of other Principles, it marries them together; and the Alkaline Salt and Earth, concentred with it, addeth to it more Strength. Hence the Caput Mortuum of most Bodies, especially those that abound with Oyl and a Sal Alkali, is brittle and friable; those Principles, which were the Ligaments of the rest, being forced away from them. From the same Cause, the Parenchymous Parts of a Root, even in their Natural State, are brittle and friable; sc. Because their Earthy, and especially Oleous and Saline Principles are, as is said,⁠[18] so very few. Therefore all Piths and more simple Parenchyma’s, break short, so Corn, and the Roots of Potato’s, and divers other Plants, being dryed, will easily be rub’d to Meal; and many Apples, after Frosts, eat mealy; the Parenchymous Parts of all which, are not only by Analogy, but in Substance or Essence, the self same Body.⁠[19]

31. §. And as the Consistence of the several Organical Parts, is dependent on their Principles; so are their Figures. And first, the Succiferous Vessels, from their Alkaline Salt,⁠[20] grow in Length. For by that Dimension, chiefly, This Salt always shoots: And being a less moveable Principle than the rest, and so apt more speedily to fix or shoot: It thus overrules them to its own Figure. And even as the Shape of a Button dependeth on the Mould, the Silk and other Materials wrought upon it, being always conformable thereunto: so here; the Salt is, as it were, the Mould; about which, the other more passive Principles gathering themselves, they all consort and fashion to it. Hence also the same Sap-Vessels are not pyramidal, as the Veins of Animals; but of an equal bore, from end to end; the shootings of the said Salt, being also figured more agreeably to that Dimension. And as by the Saline Principle, these Vessels are Long; so by the Oleous,⁠[21] they are every where Round, or properly Cylindrical; without some joynt Efficacy of which Principle, the said Vessels would be Flat, or some way Edged and Angular, as all saline shoots, of themselves, are; as those of Alum, Vitriol, Sal Ammoniac, Sea Salt, Nitre, &c. And because the Spirituous and more Fluid part of the Principles, is least of all apt to fix; while therefore, the other parts fix round about, This will remain moveable in the Centre; from whence every Vessel is formed, not into a solid, but hollow Cylinder; that is, becomes a Tube.

32. §. The Lactiferous Vessels are tubulary, as the Lymphæducts, but of a somewhat wider Concave or Bore. For being their Principles are less Earthy and Oleous, and also more loosely Concentred; as from their easie corruption or Resolution by the Aer, it appears they are: they are therefore more tender, and so more easily dilative, and yielding to the said Spirituous part in the Centre. And by this means, obtaining a wider Bore, they are more adapted to the free motion of the Milky Content: which being an Oleous and Thicker Liquor, than that in the Lympheducts; and having no advantage of pulsation, as the Blood hath in Animals; might sometimes be apt to stagnate, if the Vessels, through which it moves, were not somewhat wider.

33. §. As the Saline Principle is the Mould of the Succiferous, so is the Aerial of the Aer-Vessels.⁠[22] Now the Particles of Aer strictly so called, at least of that part of it concerned in the Generation of the Aer-Vessels, I suppose, are crooked: and that by composition of many of those crooked ones together, some of them become Spiral, or of some other winding Figure: and that thereupon dependeth the Elastick Property of the Aer, or its being capable of Rarefaction and Condensation by force. Wherefore, the said crooked Particles of the Aer, first shooting and setting together, as the Mould, the other Principle cling and fix conformably round about them. So that, as by force of the Saline Principles, the rest of them are made to shoot out in Long continued Fibres; so by force of the Aerial, those Fibers are still disposed into Spiral Lines, thus making up the Aer-Vessels. And according as there are fewer of these Aerial Particles, in proportion to the Saline, the Concave of the Aer-Vessels is variously wider, or the Fibres continue their shooting by wider Rings; as those that come nearer to a right Line, and so are more compliant to the Figure and shooting of the Saline parts. And whereas the Lympheducts, shooting out only in length, are never sensibly amplified beyond their original size: These, on the contrary, always, more or less, enlarge their Diameter; because their Fibres, being disposed into Spiral Lines, must needs therefore, as they continue their growth, be still dilated into greater and greater Rings. And being at the bottom of the Root more remote from the Aer, and so having somewhat fewer Particles purely Aerial, there ingredient to them, then at the top; they fall more under the government of the Saline, and so come nearer to a right Line, that is into greater Circles; and so the Aer-Vessels, made up of those Circles, are there generally wider.⁠[23]

34. §. By mediation of their Principles, the Parenchymous Parts likewise of a Root have their proper Contexture. For from their Acid Salt they are Fibrous; from their Oyl, the Fibres are Round, and in all parts even within themselves; and from their Spirit, it is most probable, that they are also hollow. But because the Spirit is, here, more copious than the Aer; and the Saline Principle an Acid,⁠[24] and so, more under the government of the Spirit, than is an Alkali; therefore are not the said Fibres continued in straight Lines, as the Sap-Vessels; or by one uniform motion, into spiral lines, as the Fibres in the Aerial; but winding, in a circular manner, to and fro a thousand ways, agreeable to the like motions of the Spirit, that most active, and here most predominant Principle. And the Spirituous Parts being, as is said, here more copious and redundant, they will not only suffice to fill up the Concaves of the Fibres, but will also gather together into innumerable little spaces, without them: whence the Fibres cannot wind close together, as Thred, in a Bottom of Yarn; but are forced to keep at some distance, one parcel from another, and so are disposed, as Bread is in baking, into Bladders.⁠[25]

35. §. And the under Fibres being set first, as the Warp, the spirituous parts next adjacent, will incline also to fix, and so govern an over work of Fibres, wrapping, as the Woof, in still smaller Circles round the other: whereby they are all knit together.⁠[26] For the same reason, the Lympheducts, being first formed, the Parenchymous Fibres set and wrap about These also.⁠[27] And the Aer-Vessels being formed in the Center, the succiferous run along those likewise (as volatile Salts shoot along the sides of a Glass, or Frost upon a Window) and so are, as it were, Incrustate about them in a Ring.

How the several Parts come to be Situate or Dispos’d. 36. §. SOME OF THE more Ætherial and Subtile parts of the Aer, as they stream through the Root, it should seem, by a certain Magnitisme, do gradually dispose the Aer-Vessels, where there are any store of them, into Rays. This Attraction (as I take leave to call it) or Magnetick power betwixt the Aer and these Vessels, may be argued, From the nature of the Principles common to them both: From the Electral nature of divers other Bodies; the Load-stone being not the only one which is attractive: And from other Effects, both before⁠[28] and hereafter mentioned. Wherefore in the inferiour parts of the Root, they are less Regular;⁠[29] because more remote from the Aer. And in the upper parts of many Roots, as Cumfery, Borage, Parsnep, where those that are next the Centre are confused, or differently disposed; Tab. 7, 8, 9. those next the Barque, and so nearer the Aer, are postured more Regularly, and usually into Rays. For the same reason it may be; that even the Sap-Vessels in the Barque, as often as the Aer Vessels are more numerous, are usually disposed into Rays, as following the direction of the Aer-Vessels. And that the Parenchyma of the Barque, is disposed into Diametral Portions: and that where the Aer Vessels are fewer or smaller, these Portions are likewise smaller or none; Tab. 7, 8, 9., &c. as in Chervil, Asparagus, Dandelion, Orpine, Bistort, Horse-Radish, Potato’s, &c.