Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 1.djvu/221

Rh vessels appear to derive their origin from the albumous tubes; be now thinks it not improbable that the lateral, as well as the terminal oriﬁces of the albumous tubes, may possess the power of generating central vessels, and that these vessels give existence to the repro- duced buds and leaves.

Mr. Knight attempted to discover in seeds'a similar power to re- generate their buds; but no experiments he could make were de- cisive, as he was never able to satisfy himself that all the buds could be eradicated without the base of the plumula being destroyed.

The power of reproducing buds here treated of, is not possesed, Mr. Knight says, by ‘annual or biennial plants; but he relates that a turnip, from which the greater part of its fruit-stalks had been cut off, and of which all the buds had been destroyed, remained some Weeks in an apparently dormant state; the ﬁrst seed in each pod then germinated, and, bursting the seed-vessel, seemed to perform the ofﬁce of a bud and leaves to the parent plant during the short remaining term of its existence.

Mr. Knight takes this opportunity to correct an inference drawn by him, in a former paper, from an experiment in which, after in- verting a shoot of a vine and removing a portion of its bark, more new wood was generated on the lower lip of the wound, now be- come uppermost, than on the opposite lip. He has there inferred, that this effect was produced by sap which had descended from the leaves above. But as the branch was employed as a layer, the matter which would have accumulated on the opposite lip of the wound had been expended in the formation of roots; a circumstance which, at that time, escaped Mr. Knight's attention.

After some general observations on the art of embalming, as it was practised by the ancient Egyptians, and on the various kinds of animals embalmed by them, Mr. Pearson proceeds to give a particular description of the very perfect mummy of an Ibis, which forms the chief subject of the present paper.

This mummy was taken out of the catacombs at Thebes, by the late Major Hayes, in the year 1802 or 1803. It was enveloped in cloth, and contained in an earthen jar, similar to those which are found at Saccara. Upon unrolling the bandage with which the mummy was covered, it was found to consist of strips of cloth, about three inches broad, which were strong and firm. The ﬁrst circumvolutions of this cloth separated easily; but as the work proceeded, they were found to adhere more firmly, and at last were so closely united, that it was necessary to divide them by means of a strong knife. Each layer of cloth seemed to have been imbued with some bituminous substance in a liquid state ; and the bandages were further secured by means of thread, in such a manner that the whole mass