That which makes me to suppose them to be Vegetables, is for that I perceiv’d many of those hillocks bare or destitute, 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 constituent 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 knobs of a red gummous substance.
From this putrify’d scab 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 putrefactive 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 multitudes 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 noble, 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 principal 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.