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lefs than their growing upwards, but that each of 'em had made a fecond and new Inflection or Elbow, as at D; in order to make their Roots, as it were in fpight of all thefe Obftacles, fink down deeper into the Earth, where they must be if they would perform any Service.

The faid Mr. Dodart relates a great many of the like Accidents with refpect to Trunks, as he had done before concerning the Roots of Acorns; viz. That finding fome Trunks of young PineTrees, thrown down to the Ground by a Storm, at a place call'd Chauville, fome lying upon a greater Steep or Slope, others upon a leffer, as in Tab. XVIII. Fig. 11. of which all the extream Parts ad, bf,cg, grew freight and perpendicularly upwards; infomuch, that thofe that fell upon a greater Obliquity, as here at E cg, in order to afcend directly, were forced to make a much more acute Angle than the uppermoft Dbf, and C ad; which lay in Places, the Declivity of which was not fo great: The like we may obferve in many Branches of Trees, when they are hinder'd by any Violence from growing upwards; fo that likewife Weeds, that spring out of the Sides of perpendicular Wails, after running a little horizontally, extend their Trunks upwards again; and even when some of ?em are not ftiff enough to bear their own Weight horizontally, infomuch that they are thereby preffed downwards, we fee, that when the Trunk becomes stronger, they will make a little Inflection, and then grow upwards. The firft Inftance thereof appears in Tab. XVIII. Fig. 12. at A, and the fecond at B; of this I obferved not long fince a won derful Example in an Elder-Tree, growing out of the little Crack of a Wall.

SECT.

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SECT. XXI. Convictions from the foregoing Obfervations.

AFTER having confider'd this whole Matter, and particularly what has been faid about Beans and Acorns, who can conceive the Reasons thereof! And if we do not afcribe it to an adorable Providence, which executes its great and wife Ends by means as yet unknown to Men, to the Confufion of its Enemies; then let any Body furnish us experimentally with a true Caufe that may be fufficient for this Purpose; and fhew us what Mechanical Operations and Laws are known to him in Nature, from whence we may plainly deduce this Phænomenon in all its Circumstances.

The Gentleman who made thefe Experiments, and fo carefully obferved all these things, was not afhamed to record the Weakness of his Understanding, and the Infufficiency of his Argumentations, immediately after the Relation thereof, even in the Memoirs of the Royal French Academy. I fhall not here relate all the Reasons that are there collected, to fhew the Nothingness of all the Hypothefes hitherto laid down; any Body that has a mind may fee them there himself. But I cannot here forbear to take notice of the noble Acknowledgment of an Adorable GoD, which the worthy Author fubjoyns upon this Occafion; and which fuch great Philofophers, as are the Members of that Academy, have permitted to be fo emphatically expreffed For Mr. Dodart having in the faid Memoirs for the Year 1700. p. 72. fuggefted all that is yet unknown, and that feemed requifite in or der to trace in fome manner the true Caufe of this Effect, concludes his Difcourfe in thefe Words: I know nothing of all this, and chufe rather to wonder X x 2

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at a certain continual and amazing Phanomenon, than to flatter my felf with imagining that I know fomething of that, of which I know nothing at all. I confefs 1 would very willingly difcover the Cause thereof, but my Ignorance will not fuffer me to enjoy a Pleasure which would overpay the lofs 1 fuffer by not understanding the Natural Caufe of fo wonderful an Appearance; for this Darkness and Ignorance in which I find my felf, makes me fee, and even makes me palpably -fenfible of a Supream Caufe, whofe Wisdom and Power infinitely furpaffes not only my Thoughts and Conjectures, but also thofe of all Men of the quickeft Apprehenfion and Judgment that ever were or ever shall be.

Now let the Atheist tell us, whether he ever durft maintain, upon feeing a ploughed Land full of Corn, by which his own Life, and the Lives of fo many more must be maintain'd, that the Plowing, Sowing, and Preparation of tha. Ground, -and the Production of the Corn from thence, was all performed by mere Chance, without any Concurrence of the wife Husbandman; and yet can he imagine that he argues rightly, when he afferts, that what we fee happening to these Seeds in their Growth (and without which all the Pains and Charges that have been beftowed upon the Land would be fruitless) can be ascribed to a Caufe that neither knows itself for any of its Operations? For unlefs Providence had been pleafed to take fo much Care, that the Roots of all Seeds fhould tend downwards to the Earth, and the Trunks or Bodies upwards, tho' the Seeds themfelves were thrown into the Earth, either horizontally or inverted, it won't be neceffary to prove, that every thing that lives by Sowing being deprived of its Nourishment, would foon perish : Since, by far the moft Kinds of Grain, and all other Seeds that are ftrewed and fown either by

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the Hand, or by Wind, as moft are, it is hardly
credible, that one of them fhould fall in fuch a
Pofture, as to fhoot forth its Root directly down-
ward, and its Trunk upward, and yet this is requi-
fite, if they grow as they fhou.d.

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SECT. XXII. The Knots and Buds of Plants, and
Convictions from thence.

We don't think it neceffary to transfer hither
all the Obfervations which the Naturalifts have
made upon the Texture of Plants by the help of
their Microscopes, fince we don't pretend to give
an entire Hiftory of Botany; wherefore thofe that
defire to contemplate the numberlefs Wonders
that occur therein, and which do unconteftably
demonftrate the Power of GoD to fuch as are
any way reasonable, may be pleased to confult
what Meffieurs Malpighi, Grew, Leuwenhoek, and
others, have writ concerning the fame; we fhall
only fay a word or two briefly about them: Now
they that have feen before, the Texture of the
Roots and Trunks of Plants, if they fhould take
a yearly Sprig of a Tree into their Hand, can they
think it happens by Chance, that it is furnifhed
round about with Knots or Buds fo exa&ly placed at
a due Distance from each other, which Knots are
the Source or Beginning of Fruits or other
Branches! But particularly, can any Body fee with-
out Aftonishment, that each of thefe little Knots
does regularly fpring from the inmoft Part of the
Branch, and that the Structure of the ligneous
Fibres and little Bladders of the Branch, are ranged
fo nicely in this Form, that upon the putting out
of the Branch, the Knot or Bud that is com-
pofed of the fame Matter with it, may likewife,
fhoot out?

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Befides

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Befides all this, one of thefe little Buds onlymay feem fufficient to make any one who seeks for a GoD, to find him therein; let him but contemplate in the 74th Figure of Malpighi, Cap. de Gemmis (and which is transferr'd hither in Tab. XIX. Fig. 3.) the Structure of an Oak-Knot, where are reprefented at A fome of the little Bladders of the Pith of the Twig, which you may obferve to be furrounded with ligneous Fibres at B; C is the Bark, the Fibres of which do further compose the Leaves D of the Knot. So that all Knots confift of the little fmall Sprig A, with its Bark, ligneous Fibres and Bladders; and the faid Sprig is preferved by little Leaves lying upon one another like Scales, and encompaffing it

round about.

In the Bladders of fome of thefe Knots (for almoft all of 'em differ from each other) are little Nipples or Globules, containing in them a terebinthinous or glutinous Matter.

Thefe Knot-Leaves, if we trace their growth, do appear in many Plants gradually longer, and in time are changed, fhooting out into Stalks of the following Leaves, which cloath the Branch proceeding from thence. How wonderfully this happens in feveral Plants, may be feen in Malpighi's Anatomy of Plants, p. 26, &c.

Wherefore the faid Gentleman having obferved all this with an unwearied Diligence, juftly concludes, that the Sprout of the Knot does already comprehend the future Branch in Miniature. This will appear fo much the more plain, if one reads the fifth Continuation of Mr. Leuwenhoek, who fays, that in the Bud of a Currant-tree, even in Winter, he coud difcover not only the Ligneous Part, but likewife the Berries themfelves, appearing like fmall Grapes, and that the faid Ligneous Part

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