The use of the dissimilar Leaves is, first, for the protection of the _Plume_; which being but young, and so but soft and tender, is provided with these, as a double Guard, one on either side of it. For this reason it is, that the _Plume_ in Corn is trussed up within a membranous Sheath; and that of a _Bean_, cooped up betwixt a pair of _Surfoyls_; but where the Lobes rise, there the _Plume_ hath neither of them, being both needless. Again, that since the _Plume_, being yet tender, may be injured not only by the Air, but also for want of Sap, the supplies from the Root being yet but slow and sparing; that the said _Plume_ therefore, by the dissimilar Leaves, may have the advantage likewise of some refreshment from Dew or Rain. For these having their Basis a little beneath that of the _Plume_, and expanding themselves on all sides of it, they often stand after Rain, like a Vessel of Water, continually soaking and supplying it, lest its new access into the Ayr, should shrivel it. Moreover, that since the dissimilar Leaves by their Basis intercept the _Root_ and _Plume_, the greater and grosser part of the Sap may be by the way deposited into those; and so the purest proceed into the yet but young and delicate _Plume_, as its fittest Aliment. Lastly, we have here a demonstration of the being of the _Seminal Root_; which since through the colour or smallness of the Seed, it could not by dissection be observ’d, except in some few; Nature hath here provided us a way of viewing it in the now effoliated Lobes, not of one or two Seeds, but of hundreds; the _Seminal Root_ visibly branching it self towards the Cone and Verges of the said Lobes, or now dissimilar Leaves. CHAP. II. _Of the Root._ Having examin’d and pursu’d the Degrees of _Vegetation_ in the _Seed_, we find its two Lobes have here their utmost period; and, that having conveyed their Seminalities into the _Radicle_ and into the _Plume_; these therefore as the Root and Trunk of the Plant still survive; Of these in their order we next proceed to speak; and first, of the _Root_: whereof, as well as of the _Seed_, we must by Dissection inform our selves. In Dissection of a _Root_ then, we shall find it with the _Radicle_, as the Parts of an old man with those of a _Fœtus_, substantially one. The first Part occurring is its skin, the Original whereof is from the Seed: For that extream thin Cuticle which is spred over the Lobes of the Seed, and from thence over the _Radicle_, upon the shooting of the _Radicle_ into a Root, is co-extended, and becomes its Skin. The next Part is the _Cortical Body_; the Original whereof likewise is from the Seed; or the _Parenchyma_, which is there common both to the Lobes and _Radicle_, being by Vegetation augmented and prolonged into the _Root_, is here the _Cortical Body_, or that which is sometimes called the _Barque_.