Micrographia: Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries ThereuponHooke, Robert
History
Micrographia: Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon
Hooke, Robert
Magnifying glasses -- Early works to 1800; Microscopy -- Early works to 1800; Natural history -- Pre-Linnean works
That which makes me to suppose them to be Vegetables, is for that I
perceiv’d many of those hillocks bare or destitute, as if those bodies lay
yet conceal’d, as G. In others of them, they were just springing out of
their gummy hillocks, which all seem’d to shoot directly outwards, as at A.
In others, as at B, I found them just gotten out, with very little or no
stalk, and the Cods of an indifferent cize; but in others, as C, I found
them begin to have little short stalks, or stems; in others, as D, those
stems were grown bigger, and larger; and in others, as at E, F, H, I, K, L,
&c. those stems and Cods were grown a great deal bigger, and the stalks
were more bulky about the root, and very much taper’d towards the top, as
at F and L is most visible.
I did not find that any of them had any seed in them, or that any of them
were hollow, but as they grew bigger and bigger, I found those heads or
Cods begin to turn their tops towards their roots, in the same manner as I
had observ’d that of Moss to do; so that in all likelihood, Nature did
intend in that posture, what she does in the like seed-cods of greater
bulk, that is, that the seed, when ripe, should be shaken out and dispersed
at the end of it, as we find in Columbine Cods, and the like.
The whole Oval OOOO in the second _Figure_ of the 12. _Scheme_ represents a
small part of a Rose-leaf, about the bigness of the little Oval in the
hillock, C, marked with the Figure X. in which I have not particularly
observ’d all the other forms of the surface of the Rose-leaf, as being
little to my present purpose.
Now, if these Cods have a seed in them so proportion’d to the Cod, as thole
of _Pinks_, and _Carnations_, and _Columbines_, and the like, how
unimaginably small must each of those seeds necessarily be, for the whole
length of one of the largest of those Cods was not ¹⁄₅₀₀ part of an Inch;
some not above ¹⁄₁₀₀₀, and therefore certainly, very many thousand of them
would be unable to make a bulk that should be visible to the naked eye; and
if each of these contain the Rudiments of a young Plant of the same kind,
what must we say of the pores and constituent parts of that?
The generation of this Plant seems in part, ascribable to a kind of
_Mildew_ or _Blight_, whereby the parts of the leaves grow scabby, or
putrify’d, as it were, so as that the moisture breaks out in little scabs
or spots, which, as I said before, look like little knobs of a red gummous
substance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account