Page:Micrographia - or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and inquiries thereupon.djvu/288

Rh it seems, having eaten their way through, taken wings and flown away, as this following account (which I receiv'd in writing from the same person, as it was sent him by his Brother) manifests. In a moorish black Peaty mould, with some small veins of whitish yellow Sands, upon occasion of digging a hole two or three foot deep, at the head of a Pond or Pool, to set a Tree in, at that depth, were found, about the end of October 1663. in those very veins of Sand, those Buttons or Nuts, sticking to a little loose stick, that is, not belonging to any live Tree, and some of them also free by themselves.

Four or five of which being then open'd, some were found to contain live Insects come to perfection, most like to flying Ants, if not the same; in others, Insects, yet imperfect, having but the head and wings form'd, the rest remaining a soft white pulpy substance.

Now, as this furnishes us with one odd History more, very agreeable to what I before hinted, so I doubt not, but were men diligent observers, they might meet with multitudes of the same kind, both in the Earth and in the Water, and in the Air, on Trees, Plants, and other Vegetables, all places and things being, as it were, animarum plena. And I have often, with wonder and pleasure, in the Spring and Summer-time, look'd close to, and diligently on, common Garden mould, and in a very small parcel of it, found such multitudes and diversities of little reptiles, some in husks, others onely creepers, many wing'd, and ready for the Air; divers husks or habitations left behind empty. Now, if the Earth of our cold Climate be so fertile of animate bodies, what may we think of the fat Earth of hotter Climates? Certainly, the Sun may there, by its activity, cause as great a parcel of Earth to fly on wings in the Air, as it does of Water in steams and vapours. And what swarms must we suppose to be sent out of those plentifull inundations of water which are poured down by the sluces of Rain in such vast quantities? So that we need not much wonder at those innumerable clouds of Locusts with which Africa, and other hot countries are so pestred, since in those places are found all the convenient causes of their production, namely, genitors, or Parents, concurrent receptacles or matrixes, and a sufficient degree of natural heat and moisture.

I was going to annex a little draught of the Figure of those Nuts sent out of Devonshire, but chancing to examine Mr. Parkinson's Herbal for something else, and particularly about Galls and Oak-apples, I found among no less then 24. several kinds of excrescencies of the Oak, which I doubt not, but upon examination, will be all found to be the matrixes of so many several kinds of Insects; I having observ'd many of them my self to be so, among 24. 'several kinds, I say, I found one described and Figur'd directly like that which I had by me, the Scheme is there to be seen, the description, because but short, I have here adjoin'd Theatri Botanici trib. 16. Chap. 2. There groweth at the roots of old Oaks in the Spring-time, and semetimes also in the very heat of Summer, a peculiar kind of Mushrom or Excrescence, call'd Uva Quercina, swelling out of the Earth, many growing one close unto another, of the fashion of a Grape, and therefore took the name, the Oak-Grape, and is of a Purplish colour on the outside, Rh