[q] The ancient Naturalists do generally agree, that Misseltoe is propagated by its Seeds carried about by, and passing through the Body of Birds. Thus Theophrastus de Caus. Plant. L. 2. c. 24. τὸ δὲ ἀπὸ σῆς ὀρνίθων, &c. Initium verò à pastu avium:——Quippe Visco detracto confectóque in alveïs, quod frigidissimum est, semen cum excremento purum dimittitur, & factâ mutatione aliquâ in arbore Stercoris causâ pullulat, erumpitque, &c. So also Pliny saith, viz. Omnino autem satum [Viscum] nullo modo nascitur, nec nisi per alvum Avium reddittum, maximè Palumbis ac Turdi. Hæc est natura, ut nisi maturatum in ventre Avium, non proveniat. Plin. N. H. L. 16. c. 44. Whether what Theophrastus and Pliny affirm, be conducive to the better fertilizing the Seeds of Misseltoe, I know not; but that it is not of absolute Necessity, I can affirm upon mine own Experience, having seen the Seeds germinate, even in the Bark of Oak. But although they shot above an Inch, and seem’d to root in the Tree, yet they came to nothing, whether destroy’d by Ants, &c. which I suspected, or whether disagreeing with the Oak, I know not. But I since find the Matter put out of doubt by Mr. Doody, which see in Mr. Ray’s Hist. Plant. App. p. 1918.
Nutmegs are said to be fertiliz’d after the same Manner, as Tavernier saith was confirm’d to him by Persons that lived many Years in those Parts; whose Relation was, The Nutmeg being ripe, several Birds come from the Islands toward the South, and devour it whole, but are forced to throw it up again, before it be digested: And that the Nutmeg, then besmear’d with a viscous Matter, falling to the Ground, takes Root, and produces a Tree, which would never thrive, was it planted. Tavern. of the Commod. of the G. Mogul. And Monsieur Thevenot, in his Travels to the Indies, gives this Account; The Tree is produc’d after this Manner; there is a kind of Birds in the Island, that having pick’d off the green Husk, swallow the Nuts, which having been some Time in their Stomach, they void by the ordinary Way; and they fail not to take rooting in the Place where they fall, and in Time to grow up to a Tree. This Bird is shap’d like a Cuckow, and the Dutch prohibit their Subjects under Pain of Death, to kill any of them. Vid. Sir T. Pope Blunt’s Nat. Hist.
But Mr. Ray gives a somewhat different Account: Hunc fructum [Nucem Moschatam] variæ quidem aves depascuntur, sed maximè Columbæ genus album & parvum, quæ dehiscente nucamento, illectæ suavitate Macis, hunc cum Nuce eripiunt & devorant, nec nisi repletâ ingluvie capacissimâ saginam deserunt. Nostrates ibi mercatores Columbis istis Nut-eaters sive Nucivoris nomen imposuerunt. Quas autem vorant Nuces, post integras per alvum reddunt. Redditæ citiùs deinde germinant utpote præmaceratæ fervore Ventriculi. Arbores inde natæ ceu præcociores, facilè sunt corruptioni obnoxiæ fructumque ferunt cæteris multo viliorem, & hâc causa neglectum incolis contemptumque, prater Macin, quem ad adulterandum meliorem adhibent. Ray H. P. L. 27. c. 4.
[r] Arbores blandioribus fruge succis hominem mitigavere. Ex iis recreans membra Olei liquor, viresque potus Vini: tot denique sapores annui sponte venientes: & mensa depugnetur licet earum causa cum feris, & pasti naufragorum corporibus pisces expetantur, etiamnum tamen secundæ. Mille præterea sunt usus earum, sine quibus vita degi non possit. Arbore sulcamus maria, terrasque admovemus, arbore exædificamus tecta. Plin. N. H. L. 12. c. 1.
[] Plantaram Usus latissime patet, & in omni vita parte occurrit. Sine illis laute, sine illis commode non vivitur, at nec vivitur omnino: Quæcunque ad victum necessaria sunt, quæcunque ad delicias faciunt, e locupletissimo suo penu abunde subministrant. Quanto ex iis mensa innocentior, mundior, salubrior quam ex Animalium cæde & laniena? Homo certe natura Animal carnivorum non est; nullis ad prædam & rapinam armis instructum, non dentibus exertis & serratis, non unguibus aduncis. Manus ad fructus colligendos, dentes ad mandendas comparati. Non legimus ei ante Diluvium carnes ad esum concessas. At non victum tantum nobis suppeditant, sed & Vestitum, & Medicinam & Domicilia aliaque, ædificia, & Navigia, & Supellectilem, & Focum, & Oblectamenta Sensuum Animique: Ex his naribus odoramenta & sussumigiæ parantur. Horum flores inenarrabili colorum & Schematum varietate, & elegantia, oculos exhilarant, suavissima odorum quos expirant fragantia spiritus recreant. Horum fructus gule illecebra mensas secundas instruunt, & languentem appetitum excitant. Taceo virorem amiœnissimum oculis amicum, quem per prata paseua agros, sylvas spatiantibus objiciunt & umbras quas contra æstum & solis ardores præbent. Ray. ib. L. 1. c. 24. p. 46.
[t] All Vegetables of a tall and spreading Growth, seem to have a natural Tendency to a hemispherical Dilation, but generally confine their Spreading within an Angle of 90 gr. as being the most becoming and useful Disposition of its Parts and Branches. Now the shortest Way to give a most graceful and useful filling to that Space of dilating and spreading out, is to proceed in strait Lines, and to dispose of those Lines, in a Variety of Parallels, &c. And to do that in a quadrantal Space, &c. there appears but one way possible, and that is, to form all the Intersections which the Shoots and Branches make, with Angles of 45 gr. only. And I dare appeal to all if it be not in this Manner, almost to a Nicety observ’d by Nature, &c. A visible Argument that the plastic Capacities of Matter are govern’d and dispos’d by an all-wise and infinite Agent, the native Strictnesses and Regularities of them plainly shewing from whose Hand they come. Account of the Origine and Format. of Foss. Shells, &c. Print. Lond. 1705. pag. 38. 41.
[] In Hederâ, sui culi & rami hinc inde claviculos, quasi radiculas emittunt, quæ parietibus, vel occurrentibus arboribus veluti digitis firmantur, & in altum suspenduntur. Hujusmodi radiculæ subrotundæ sunt, & pilis cooperiuntur: & quad mirum est, glutinosum fundunt humorem, seu Terebinthinam, quâ arcte lapidibus nectuntur & agglutinantur.——Non minori industriâ Natura utitur in Vite Canadensi, &c. The admirable and curious Make of whose Tendrels and their Feet, see in the illustrious Author, Malpig. de Capreolis, &c. p. 48.
Claspers are of a compound Nature, between that of a Root and a Trunk. Their Use is sometimes for Support only; as in the Claspers of Vines, Briony, &c. whose Branches being long, slender and fragile, would fall by their own Weight, and that of their Fruit; but these Claspers taking hold of any Thing that is at Hand: Which they do by a natural Circumvolution which they have; (those of Briony have a retrograde Motion about every third Circle, in the Form of a double Clasp; so that if they miss one Way, they may catch the other.) Sometimes the Use of Claspers is also for a Supply, as in the Trunk Roots of Ivy; which being a Plant that mounts very high, and being of a closer and more compact Substance than that of Vines, the Sap would not be sufficiently supply’d to the upper Sprouts, unless these assisted the Mother Root; but these serve also for Support too. Sometimes also they serve for Stabiliment, Propagation and Shade; for the first of these serve the Claspers of Cucumers; for the second, those, or rather the Trunk-Roots of Chamomil; and for all three the Trunk-Roots of Strawberries. Harris Lex. Tech. in verb. Claspers.
[w] Vegetables afford not only Food to Irrationals, but also Physick, if it be true which Aristotle saith, and after him Pliny; which latter in his 8th Book, Chap. 27. specifies divers Plants made use of as Specificks, by divers, both Beasts and Birds: As Dittany by wounded Deer, Celandine by Swallows, to cure the sore Eyes of their Young, &c. And if the Reader hath a Mind to see more Instances of this Nature, (many of them fanciful enough,) he may consult Mersenne in Genes. pag. 933.
[x] See before [Book IV. Chap. 11. Note (b).]