Page:Micrographia - or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and inquiries thereupon.djvu/285

Rh I have, for my own particular, besides several of those mention'd by him, observ'd divers other circumstances, perhaps, not much taken notice of, though very common, which do indeed afford us a very coercive argument to admire the goodness and providence of the infinitely wise Creator in his most excellent contrivances and dispensations. I have observ'd, at several times of the Summer, that many of the leaves of divers Plants have been spotted, or, as it were scabbed, and looking on the undersides of those of them that have been but a litte irregular, I have perceiv'd them to be sprinkled with divers sorts of little Eggs, which letting alone, I have found by degrees to grow bigger, and become little Worms with leggs, but still to keep their former places, and those places of the leaves, of their own accords, to be grown very protuberant upwards, and very hollow, and arched underneath, whereby those young creatures are, as it were, shelter'd and housed from external injury; divers leaves I have observ'd to grow and swell so farr, as at length perfectly to inclose the Animal, which, by other observations I have made, I ghess to contain it, and become, as it were a womb to it, so long, till it be fit and prepar'd to be translated into another state, at what time, like (what they say of) Vipers, they gnaw their way through the womb that bred them; divers of these kinds I have met with upon Goosberry leaves, Rose-tree leaves, Willow leaves, and many other kinds.

There are often to be found upon Rose-trees and Brier bushes, little red tufts, which are certain knobs or excrescencies, growing out from the Rind, or barks of those kinds of Plants, they are cover'd with strange kinds of threads or red hairs, which feel very soft, and look not unpleasantly. In most of these, if it has no hole in it, you shall find certain little Worms, which I suppose to be the causes of their production; for when that Worm has eat its way through, they, having performed what they were design'd by Nature to do, by degrees die and wither away.

Now, the manner of their production, I suppose to be thus, that the Al-wise Creator has as well implanted in every creature a faculty of knowing what place is convenient for the hatching, nutrition, and preservation of their Eggs and of-springs whereby they are stimulated and directed to convenient places, which becom, as 'twere the wombs that perform those offices: As he has also suited and adapted a property to those places wherby they grow and inclose those seeds, and having inclosed them, provide a convenient nourishment for them, but as soon as they have done the office of a womb, they die and wither.

The progress of inclosure I have often observ'd in leaves, which in those places where those seeds have been cast, have by degrees swell'd and inclos'd them, so perfectly round, as not to leave any perceptible passage out.

From this same cause, I suppose that Galls, Oak-apples, and several other productions of that kind, upon the branches and leaves of Trees, have their original, for if you open any of them, when almost ripe, you shall find a little Worm in them. Thus, if you open never so many dry Galls, you shall find either a hole whereby the Worm has eat its passage Rh