Essays on the Microscope: Containing a Practical Description of the Most Improved Microscopes, a General History of Insects, etc., etc.Adams, George
Science
Essays on the Microscope: Containing a Practical Description of the Most Improved Microscopes, a General History of Insects, etc., etc.
Adams, George
Insects -- Early works to 1800; Microscopy -- Early works to 1800
In the former part of this experiment, the vessels of the rind have been
filled with a solution of lead, that makes of itself no visible
alteration in them; but this colourless impregnation, when the orpiment
lixivium gets to it, becomes of a deep brown; the vessels themselves
appear somewhat the darker for it; but these dots, which are real
openings, are now plainly seen to be such, the colour being perfectly
visible in them, and much darker than in the vessels. This object must
be always viewed dry.
If a piece of the rind, thus impregnated, be gently rubbed between the
fingers, till the parts are separated, we shall be able in one place or
other, to get a view of the vessels all round, and of the films which
form the blebs between them.
Every part of the rind, and every coat of it, even the interstitial
place between its innermost coat and bark, are filled with a fine fluid.
The very course and progress of the fluid may be shewn in this part,
even by an easy preparation; only that different rinds must be sought
for this purpose, the vessels in some being larger than in others.
Repeated trials have shewn me that the whole progress may be easily
marked in the three following kinds, with only a tincture of cochineal.
Put half an ounce of cochineal, in powder, into half a pint of spirit of
wine; set it in a warm place, and shake it often for four days; then
filter off the clear tincture. Put an inch depth of this into a cup,
and set upright in it pieces of the rind of ash, white willow, and
ozier, prepared as has been directed, by maceration in water; for in
that way one trouble serves for an hundred kinds. Let an inch of the
rinds also stand up out of the tincture. After twenty-four hours take
them out, clip off the part which was immersed in the fluid, and save
the rest for observation.
TO PREPARE THE BLEA.
Cut the pieces in a fit season, either just before the first leaves of
Spring, or in the Midsummer shooting time. Then we see all the wonders
of the structure; the thousands of mouths which open throughout the
course of these innumerable vessels, to pour their fluid into the
interstitial matter.
These vessels, which are in nature cisterns of sap for the feeding the
growth of the whole tree, are so large, that they are capable of being
filled with coloured wax, in the manner of the vessels in anatomical
injections; and this way they present pleasing objects for the
microscope, and afford excellent opportunities of tracing their course
and structure.
A METHOD OF FILLING THE SAP VESSELS OF PLANTS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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