Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 004.djvu/252

 Seed have very much differing-Salts, and are of very different kinds; and yet see each Tree prosper the better by the Exchange. Hence we may suspect, that the very contextures of their Bodies, from the first spirting of their seed, and as they are form'd gradually from the Invisible Principles or Spirit and vigor of their Seeds, however small and imperceptible, are the natural Limbecs, where the common Raine, Water, and Air, are digested into very much differing Leaves, Fruit, Seed, Resins, Gums, cooling Julips, &c. perhaps as the Cow's Belly converts the common juyce of all sorts of Grass into Milk; or as the Bee ferments the dew of all Flowers into Hony and Wax.

We see also, that an handful of Mosse, sometimes above a span long, and resembling Vegetables, grows out of a small Oyster-shel, without Earth, dirt, or sand for the relief of the Root; Trees out of bare Rocks, and the annual attire of Harts and Bucks out of their bony Heads. Whence we may easily appreendapprehend [sic], how the Seeds in their time, and afterwards the Roots, Stems and Leaves of Trees, maybe the proper Strainers to generate the peculiar Saps and Juyces; and perhaps to ferment and boyle the Liquors into their several Salts. It may pass for a resemblance, if not for an instance, that the Juyce of some sweet Pears may be dryed into a very sweet Sugar; and the Juyce of some other Pears is so fierce, that at the very opening of the Rind with the teeth, it doth almost suffocate, as if it would kill dead immediately; and yet this Juyce by time and seasonable maturation becoms sweet, winy, and luscious. And we hear of divers Exotick Fluits that will kill outright; and that so quick, as may challenge the fiercest Menstruum of an expert Chymist. Now, as the Horns of a Stagg have their whole growth and virtue from the protruding Blond and Spirits of the Animal; the Mosse (as by the Microscope appears, when withered) from the inward shel of the Oyster and the Marine Water; so in Plants, the Sap may by Heats and Coolers, and other changes in Summer, Autumn and Winter, by Winds, and compressing Air, be hardened in o the Timber, Seeds and their Stones and Kernels. All seems to be but Sap at the first draught, or little else besides