And as every Part hath two, so the whole Vegetable taken together, is a composition of two only, and no more: All properly Woody Parts, Strings and Fibres, are one Body: All simple Barques, Piths, Parenchyma’s and Pulps, and as to their substantial Nature, Pills and Skins likewise, all but one Body: the several Parts of a Vegetable all differing from each other, only by the various Proportions and Mixtures, and variously sized Pores of these two Bodies. What from these two general Observations might reasonably be inferr’d, I shall not now mention.
The fourth and innermost Cover we may call the Secondine; the sight whereof, by cutting off the Coats of an Infant-Bean, at the Cone thereof in very thin Slices, and with great Caution, may be obtain’d. While unbroken, ’tis transparent; being torn and taken off, it gathers up into the likeness of a Jelly, or that we call the Tredle of an Egg, when over-boyl’d. This Membrane in larger or elder Beans, is not to be found distinct; but becomes as it were the Lining of the inner Coat: But (as far as our Enquiries yet discover) it may in most other Seeds, even full grown, be distinctly seen; as in those of Cucumber, Colocynthis, Burdock, Carthamum, Gromwel, Endive, Mallows, &c. ’Tis usually so very thin, as in the above-nam’d, as very difficultly to be discover’d. In some Kernels, as of Apricots, ’tis very thick; and in some other Seeds. That all these have the Analogy of one and the same Cover, which I call the Secondine, is most probably argu’d from their alike Natures; being all of them plain simple Membranes, with not the least Fibre of the Lignous Body or Seed Branch, visibly distributed in them; as also from their Contexture, which is in all of them more close.
The Concave of this Membrane is filled with a most transparent Liquor, out of which the Seed is formed; as in cutting a petite and Infant-Bean, may be seen; and yet better in a young Walnut. In Beans I have observed it to turn, upon boyling, into a tender white coagulum.
Through this Membrane, the Lignous Body or Seed-Branches distributed in the inner Coat, at last shoot downright two slender Fibres, like two Navles, one into each Lobe of the Bean. The places where the said Fibres shoot into the Lobes, are near the Basis of the Radicle; and by their Blackishness well enough remark’d: but the Fibres themselves are so very small, as scarcely to be discern’d: Yet in a Lupine, of the larger kind, both the places where the Navel-Fibres shoot into the Lobes (which here from the Basis of the Radicle is more remote) and the Fibres themselves, are fairly visible. For the Seed-Branch, upon its entrance into the Coat of the Lupine, is presently divided into two main Branches, and those two into other less; whereof some underly, others aloft, run along the Coat, and towards its other end meet and are inosculated; where about two opposite, shallow, round, and most minute Cavities, answerable to two Specks of a cartilaginous gloss, one in either Lobe, may be observed, which Specks are the ends of the said Navel-Fibres, upon the ripening of the Seed there broken off. These Fibres, from the Superficies of each Lobe, descend a little way directly down; presently, each is divided into two Branches, one distributed into the Lobes, the other into the Radicle & Plume, in the manner as in [the first Chapter] is describ’d. And thus far the History. I shall now only with a brief account of the Generation of the Seed, as hereupon dependent, conclude this Discourse.
Let us say then, that the Sap having in the Root, Trunk, and Leaves, passed divers Concoctions and Separations, in the manner as they are said to be perform’d therein; ’tis now at last, in some good maturity, advanced towards the Seed.
The more copious and cruder part hereof is again seperated by a free reception into the Fruit, or other Part analogous to it: being either sufficiently ample to contain it, or at least laxe enough for its transpiration, and so its due discharge. The more Essential part is into the Seed-Branch or Branches entertain’d; which, because they are evermore of a very considerable length, and of a Constitution very fine, the said Sap thus becomes in its Current therein, as in the Spermatick Vessels, still more mature.
In this mature estate, from the seed-Branch into the Coats of the seed, as into the Womb, ’tis next delivered up. The meaner Part hereof again, to the outer, as aliment good enough, is supplied. The finer part is transmitted to the Inner; which, being, as is said, a Parenchymous and more spatious Body, the Sap therefore is not herein, as in the outer, a meer aliment; but in order to its being, by Fermentation, farther prepared.
Yet the outer Coat, being on the contrary hard and dense; for that reason, as it admitteth not the Fermentation of the Sap so well within it self; so doth it the more promote and favour it in the Inner, being Bounds both to it and its Sap; and also quickneth the process of the whole Work in the formation of the Seed.