In the Trailing of the Trunk, they serve for stabiliment, propagation and shade. For stabiliment, we see the Claspers of Cucumbers: For the Trunk and Branches being long and fragile, the Brushes of the Winds would injuriously hoise them to and fro, to the dammage both of themselves and their tender Fruit, were they not by these Ligaments brought to good Association and Settlement.
As for this end, so for Propagation, we see the Trunk-Roots of Camomile. Whence we have the reason of the common observation, that it grows better by being trod upon: the Mould, where too laxe, being thus made to lie more conveniently about the said Trunk-Roots newly bedded therein; and is that which we see also effected in Rowling of Corn.
For both these ends, we see the Trunk-Roots of Strawberries; as also for shade; for in that we see all Strawberries delight; and by the trailing of the Plant is well obtain’d: So that as we are wont to tangle the Twigs of Trees together to make an Arbour Artificial; the same is here done to make a Natural one; as likewise by the Claspers of Cucumbers: For the Branches of the one by the Linking of their Claspers, and of the other by the Tethering of their Trunk-Roots, being couched together; their tender fruits thus lie under the Umbrage of a Bower made of their own Leaves.
CHAP. IV.
Of the Germen, Branch, and Leaf.
The Parts of the Germen and Branch, are the same with those of the Trunk; the same Skin, Cortical and Lignous Bodies, Insertment and Pith, hereinto propagated, and distinctly observable herein.
For upon Enquiry into the Original of a Branch or Germen, it appears, That it is not from the Superficies of the Trunk, but so deep, as to take with the Cortical, the Lignous Body into it self; and that not only from its Circumference, but (so as to take the Pith in also) from its Inner or Central parts. Divers whereof may commonly be seen to shoot out into the Pith; from which Shoots the surrounding and more superiour Germens are originated; in like manner as the Lignous Body of the Trunk is sometimes principally from those Fibrous Shoots which run along the Pith in the Root.
The manner wherein usually the Germen and Branch are fram’d, is briefly thus: The Sap (as is said, [Chap. 3.]) mounting in the Trunk, will not only by its length, but by its breadth also, through the Insertions partly move. Yet, its Particles being not all alike qualified, in different degrees: Some are more gross and sluggish; of which we have the formation of a Circle of Wood only; or of an Annual Ring: Others are more brisk; and by these we have the Germen propagated. For by the vigour of their own motion from the Center, they impress an equal tendency on some of the inner parts of the Lignous Body next adjacent to the Pith, to move with them. And since the Lignous Body is not entire, but frequently disparted; through these dispartments, the said interiour Parts, upon their Nutrition, actually shoot; not only towards the Circumference, so as to make part of a Ring, but even beyond it, in order to the production of a Germen. And the Lignous Body thus moving, and carrying the Cortical along with it; they both make a force upon the Skin: Yet their motion being most even and gradual, that force is such likewise; not to cause the least breach of its parts, but gently to carry it on with themselves; and so partly by the extension of its already existent parts, as of those of Gold in drawing of Guilded Wyer; and partly by the accretion of new ones, as in the enlarging of a Bubble above the Surface of the Water, it is extended with them to their utmost growth. In which growth, the Germen being prolonged, and so displaying its several parts, as when a Prospective or Telescope is drawn out, thus becomes a Branch.
The same way as the propagation of the Parts of a Germen is contriv’d is its due nutrition also: For being originated from the inner part of the Lignous Body, ’tis nourished with the best fermented Sap in the Trunk, sc. that next adjacent to it in the Pith. Besides, since all its Parts, upon their shooting forth, divaricate from their perpendicular, to a cross Line, as these and the other grow and thrive together, bind and throng each other into a Knot; through which Knot the Sap being strain’d, ’tis thus in due moderation & purity delivered up into the Branch.