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Micrographia by Robert Hooke

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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.

From this putrify'd scabb breaks out this little Vegetable; which may be
somewhat like a _Mould_ or _Moss_; and may have its _equivocal_ generation
much after the same manner as I have supposed _Moss_ or _Mould_ to have,
and to be a more simple and uncompounded kind of vegetation, which is set a
moving by the _putrifactive_ and _fermentative_ heat, joyn'd with that of
the ambient aerial, when (by the putrifaction and decay of some other parts
of the vegetable, that for a while staid its progress) it is unfetter'd and
left at liberty to move in its former course, but by reason of its
_regulators_, moves and acts after quite another manner then it did when a
_coagent_ in the more compounded _machine_ of the more perfect Vegetable.

And from this very same Principle, I imagine the _Misleto_ of Oaks, Thorns,
Appletrees, and other Trees, to have its original: It seldom or never
growing on any of those Trees, till they begin to wax decrepid, and decay
with age, and are pester'd with many other infirmities.

Hither also may be referr'd those multitudes and varieties of _Mushroms_,
such as that, call'd _Jews-ears_, all sorts of _gray_ and _green_ Mosses,
&c. which infest all kind of Trees, shrubs, and the like, especially when
they come to any bigness. And this we see to be very much the method of
Nature throughout its operations, _putrifactive Vegetables_ very often
producing a Vegetable of a much less compounded nature, and of a much
inferiour tribe; and _putrefactive_ animal substances degenerating into
some kind of animal production of a much inferiour rank, and of a more
simple nature.

Thus we find the humours and substances of the body, upon _putrifaction_,
to produce strange kinds of moving Vermine: _the putrifaction_ of the
slimes and juices of the Stomack and Guts, produce Worms almost like
Earth-worms, the Wheals in childrens hands produce a little Worm, call'd a
_Wheal-worm_: The bloud and milk, and other humours, produce other kinds of
Worms, at least, if we may believe what is deliver'd to us by very famous
Authors; though, I confess, I have not yet been able to discover such my
self.

And whereas it may seem strange that _Vinegar_, _Meal_, musty _Casks_, &c.
are observ'd to breed their differing kinds of Insects, or living
creatures, whereas they being Vegetable substances, seem to be of an
inferiour kind, and so unable to produce a creature more noble, or of a
more compounded nature then they themselves are of, and so without some
concurrent seminal principle, may be thought utterly unfit for such an
operation; I must add, that we cannot presently positively say, there are
no animal substances, either mediately, as by the soil or fatning of the
Plant from whence they sprung, or more immediately, by the real mixture or
composition of such substances, join'd with them; or perchance some kind of
Insect, in such places where such kind of _putrifying_ or _fermenting_
bodies are, may, by a certain instinct of nature, eject some sort of
seminal principle, which cooperating with various kinds of _putrifying_
substances, may produce various kinds of Insects, or Animate bodies: For we
find in most sorts of those lower degrees of Animate bodies, that the
_putrifying_ substances on which these Eggs, Seeds, or seminal principles
are cast by the Insect, become, as it were, the _Matrices_ or Wombs that
conduce very much to their generation, and may perchance also to their
variation and alteration, much after the same manner, as, by strange and
unnatural copulations, several new kinds of Animals are produc'd, as
_Mules_, and the like, which are usually call'd Monstrous, because a little
unusual, though many of them have all their principal parts as perfectly
shap'd and adapted for their peculiar uses, as any of the most perfect
Animals. If therefore the _putrifying_ body, on which any kind of seminal
or vital principle chances to be cast, become somewhat more then meerly a
nursing and fostering helper in the generation and production of any kind
of Animate body, the more neer it approaches the true nature of a Womb, the
more power will it have on the by-blow it incloses. But of this somewhat
more in the description of the _Water-gnat_. Perhaps some more accurate
Enquiries and Observations about these matters might bring the Question to
some certainty, which would be of no small concern in Natural Philosophy.

But that _putrifying_ animal substances may produce animals of an inferior
kind, I see not any so very great a difficulty, but that one may, without
much absurdity, admit: For as there may be multitudes of contrivances that
go to the making up of one compleat Animate body; so, That some of those
_coadjutors_, in the perfect existence and life of it, may be vitiated, and
the life of the whole destroyed, and yet several of the constituting
contrivances remain intire, I cannot think it beyond imagination or
possibility; no more then that a like accidental process, as I have
elswhere hinted, may also be supposed to explicate the method of Nature in
the _Metamorphosis_ of Plants. And though the difference between a Plant
and an Animal be very great, yet I have not hitherto met with any so
_cogent_ an Argument, as to make me positive in affirming these two to be
altogether _Heterogeneous_ and of quite differing kinds of Nature: And
besides, as there are many _Zoophyts_, and sensitive Plants (divers of
which I have seen, which are of a middle nature, and seem to be Natures
transition from one degree to another, which may be observ'd in all her
other passages, wherein she is very seldom observ'd to leap from one step
to another) so have we, in some Authors, Instances of Plants turning into
Animals, and Animals into Plants, and the like; and some other very strange
(because unheeded) proceedings of Nature; something of which kind may be
met with, in the description of the _Water-Gnat_, though it be not
altogether so direct to the present purpose.

But to refer this Discourse of Animals to their proper places, I shall add,
that though one should suppose, or it should be prov'd by Observations;
that several of these kinds of Plants are accidentally produc'd by a casual
_purifaction_, I see not any great reason to question, but that,
notwithstanding its own production was as 'twere casual, yet it may
germinate and produce seed, and by it propagate its own, that is, a new
Species. For we do not know, but that the Omnipotent and All-wise Creator
might as directly design the structure of such a Vegetable, or such an
Animal to be produc'd out of such or such a _putrifaction_ or change of
this or that body, towards the constitution or structure of which, he knew
it necessary, or thought it fit to make it an ingredient; as that the
digestion or moderate heating of an Egg, either by the Female, or the Sun,
or the heat of the Fire, or the like, should produce this or that Bird; or
that _Putrifactive_ and warm steams should, out of the blowings, as they
call them, that is, the Eggs of a Flie, produce a living Magot, and that,
by degrees, be turn'd into an _Aurelia_, and that, by a longer and a
proportion'd heat, be _transmuted_ into a Fly. Nor need we therefore to
suppose it the more imperfect in its kind, then the more compounded
Vegetable or Animal of which it is a part; for he might as compleatly
furnish it with all kinds of contrivances necessary for its own existence,
and the propagation of its own Species, and yet make it a part of a more
compounded body: as a Clock-maker might make a Set of Chimes to be a part
of a Clock, and yet, when the watch part or striking part are taken away,
and the hindrances of its motion remov'd, this chiming part may go as
accurately, and strike its tune as exactly, as if it were still a part of
the compounded _Automaton_. So, though the original cause, or seminal
principle from which this minute Plant on Rose leaves did spring; were,
before the corruption caus'd by the Mill-dew, a component part of the leaf
on which it grew, and did serve as a _coagent_ in the production and
constitution of it, yet might it be so consummate, as to produce a seed
which might have a power of propagating the same species: the works of the
Creator seeming of such an excellency, that though they are unable to help
to the perfecting of the more compounded existence of the greater Plant or
Animal, they may have notwithstanding an ability of acting singly upon
their own internal principle, so as to produce a Vegetable body, though of
a less compounded nature, and to proceed so farr in the method of other
Vegetables, as to bear flowers and seeds, which may be capabale of
propagating the like. So that the little cases which appear to grow on the
top of the slender stalks, may, for ought I know, though I should suppose
them to spring from the perverting of the usual course of the parent
Vegetable, contain a seed, which, being scatter'd on other leaves of the
same Plant, may produce a Plant of much the same kind.

Nor are Damask-Rose leaves the onely leaves that produce these kinds of
Vegetable sproutings; for I have observ'd them also in several other kinds
of Rose leaves, and on the leaves of several sorts of Briers, and on
Bramble leaves they are oftentimes to be found in very great clusters; so
that I have found in one cluster, three, four, or five hundred of them,
making a very conspicuous black spot or scab on the back side of the leaf.

* * * * *


Observ. XX. _Of _blue Mould_, and of the first Principles of Vegetation
arising from _Putrefaction_._

The Blue and White and several kinds of hairy mouldy spots, which are
observable upon divers kinds of _putrify'd_ bodies, whether Animal
substances, or Vegetable, such as the skin, raw or dress'd, flesh, bloud,
humours, milk, green Cheese, &c. or rotten sappy Wood, or Herbs, Leaves,
Barks, Roots, &c. of Plants, are all of them nothing else but several kinds
of small and variously figur'd Mushroms, which, from convenient materials
in those _putrifying_ bodies, are, by the concurrent heat of the Air,
excited to a certain kind of vegetation, which will not be unworthy our
more serious speculation and examination, as I shall by and by shew. But,
first, I must premise a short description of this _Specimen_, which I have
added of this Tribe, in the first Figure of the XII. _Scheme_, which is
nothing else but the appearance of a small white spot of hairy mould,
multitudes of which I found to bespeck & whiten over the red covers of a
small book, which, it seems, were of Sheeps skin, that being more apt to
gather mould, even in a dry and clean room, then other leathers. These
spots appear'd, through a good _Microscope_, to be a very pretty shap'd
Vegetative body, which, from almost the same part of the Leather, shot out
multitudes of small long cylindrical and transparent stalks, not exactly
streight, but a little bended with the weight of a round and white knob
that grew on the top of each of them; many of these knobs I observ'd to be
very round, and of a smooth surface, such as A, A, &c. others smooth
likewise, but a little oblong, as B; several of them a little broken, or
cloven with chops at the top, as C; others flitter'd as 'twere, or flown
all to pieces, as D, D. The whole substance of these pretty bodies was of a
very tender constitution, much like the substance of the softer kind of
common white Mushroms, for by touching them with a Pin, I found them to be
brused and torn; they seem'd each of them to have a distinct root of their
own; for though they grew neer together in a cluster, yet I could perceive
each stem to rise out of a distinct part or pore of the Leather; some of
these were small and short, as seeming to have been but newly sprung up, of
these the balls were for the most part round, others were bigger, and
taller, as being perhaps of a longer growth, and of these, for the most
part, the heads were broken, and some much wasted, as E; what these heads
contain'd I could not perceive; whether they were knobs and flowers, or
seed cases, I am not able to say, but they seem'd most likely to be of the
same nature with those that grow on Mushroms, which they did, some of them,
not a little resemble.

Both their smell and taste, which are active enough to make a sensible
impression upon those organs, are unpleasant and noisome.

I could not find that they would so quickly be destroy'd by the actual
flame of a Candle, as at first sight of them I conceived they would be, but
they remain'd intire after I had past that part of the Leather on which
they stuck three or four times through the flame of a Candle; so that, it
seems they are not very apt to take fire, no more then the common white
Mushroms are when they are sappy.

There are a multitude of other shapes, of which these _Microscopical_
Mushroms are figur'd, which would have been a long Work to have described,
and would not have suited so well with my design in this Treatise, onely,
amongst the rest, I must not forget to take notice of one that was a little
like to, or resembled, a Spunge, consisting of a multitude of little
Ramifications almost as that body does, which indeed seems to be a kind of
Water-Mushrom, of a very pretty texture, as I else-where manifest. And a
second, which I must not omit, because often mingled, and neer adjoining to
these I have describ'd, and this appear'd much like a Thicket of bushes, or
brambles, very much branch'd, and extended, some of them, to a great
length, in proportion to their Diameter, like creeping brambles.

The manner of the growth and formation of this kind of Vegetable, is the
third head of Enquiry, which, had I time, I should follow: the figure and
method of Generation in this concrete seeming to me, next after the Enquiry
into the formation, figuration; or chrystalization of Salts, to be the most
simple, plain, and easie; and it seems to be a _medium_ through which he
must necessarily pass, that would with any likelihood investigate the
_forma informans_ of Vegetables: for as I think that he shall find it a
very difficult task, who undertakes to discover the form of Saline
crystallizations, without the consideration and prescience of the nature
and reason of a Globular form, and as difficult to explicate this
configuration of Mushroms, without the previous consideration of the form
of Salts; so will the enquiry into the forms of Vegetables be no less, if
not much more difficult, without the fore-knowledge of the forms of
Mushroms, these several Enquiries having no less dependance one upon
another then any select number of Propositions in Mathematical Elements may
be made to have.

Nor do I imagine that the skips from the one to another will be found very
great, if beginning from fluidity, or body without any form, we descend
gradually, till we arrive at the highest form of a bruite Animal's Soul,
making the steps or foundations of our Enquiry, _Fluidity_, _Orbiculation_,
_Fixation_, _Angulization_, or _Crystallization Germination_ or
_Ebullition_, _Vegetation_, _Plantanimation_, _Animation_, _Sensation_,
_Imagination_.

Now, that we may the better proceed in our Enquiry, It will be requisite to
consider:

First, that Mould and Mushroms require no seminal property, but the former
may be produc'd at any time from any kind of _putrifying_ Animal, or
Vegetable Substance, as Flesh, &c. kept moist and warm, and the latter, if
what _Mathiolus_ relates be true, of making them by Art, are as much within
our command, of which Matter take the _Epitomie_ which Mr. _Parkinson_ has
deliver'd in his _Herbal_, in his Chapter of _Mushroms_, because I have not
_Mathiolus_ now by me: _Unto these Mushroms_ (saith he) _may also be
adjoyn'd those which are made of Art (whereof _Mathiolus_ makes mention)
that grow naturally among certain stones in _Naples_, and that the stones
being digg'd up, and carried to _Rome_, and other places, where they set
them in their Wine Cellars, covering them with a little Earth, and
sprinkling a little warm water thereon, would within four days produce
Mushroms fit to be eaten, at what time one will: As also that Mushroms may
be made to grow at the foot of a wilde _Poplar Tree_, within four days
after, warm water wherein some leaves have been dissolv'd shall be pour'd
into the Root (which must be slit) and the stock above ground._

Next, that as Mushroms may be generated without seed, so does it not appear
that they have any such thing as seed in any part of them; for having
considered several kinds of them, I could never find any thing in them that
I could with any probability ghess to be the seed of it, so that it does
not as yet appear (that I know of) that Mushroms may be generated from a
seed, but they rather seem to depend merely upon a convenient constitution
of the matter out of which they are made, and a concurrence of either
natural or artificial heat.

Thirdly, that by several bodies (as Salts and Metals both in Water and in
the air, and by several kinds of sublimations in the Air) actuated and
guided with a congruous heat, there may be produc'd several kinds of bodies
as curiously, if not of a more compos'd Figure; several kinds of rising or
Ebulliating Figures seem to manifest; as witness the shooting in the
Rectification of spirits of _Urine_, _Hart-horn_, _Bloud_, &c. witness also
the curious branches of evaporated dissolutions, some of them against the
sides of the containing Jar: others standing up, or growing an end, out of
the bottom, of which I have taken notice of a very great variety. But above
all the rest, it is a very pretty kind of Germination which is afforded us
in the Silver Tree, the manner of making which with Mercury and Silver, is
well known to the Chymists, in which there is an Ebullition or Germination,
very much like this of Mushroms, if I have been rightly inform'd of it.

Fourthly, I have very often taken notice of, and also observ'd with a
_Microscope_, certain excrescencies or Ebullitions in the snuff of a
Candle, which, partly from the sticking of the smoaky particles as they are
carryed upwards by the current of the rarify'd Air and flame, and partly
also from a kind of Germination or Ebullition of some actuated unctuous
parts which creep along and filter through some small string of the Week,
are formed into pretty round and uniform heads, very much resembling the
form of hooded Mushroms, which, being by any means expos'd to the fresh
Air, or that air which encompasses the flame, they are presently lick'd up
and devour'd by it, and vanish.

The reason of which _Phaenomenon_ seems to me, to be no other then this:

That when a convenient thread of the Week is so bent out by the sides of
the snuff that are about half an Inch or more, remov'd above the bottom, or
lowest part of the flame, and that this part be wholly included in the
flame; the Oyl (for the reason of filtration, which I have elsewhere
rendred) being continualy driven up the snuff is driven likewise into this
ragged bended-end, and this being remov'd a good distance, as half an Inch
or more, above the bottom of the flame, the parts of the air that passes by
it, are already, almost satiated with the dissolution of the boiling
unctuous steams that issued out below, and therefore are not onely glutted,
that is, can dissolve no more then what they are already acting upon, but
they carry up with them abundance of unctuous and sooty particles, which
meeting with that rag of the Week, that is plentifully fill'd with Oyl, and
onely spends it as fast as it evaporates, and not at all by dissolution or
burning, by means of these steamy parts of the filterated Oyl issuing out
at the sides of this ragg, and being inclos'd with an air that is already
satiated and cannot prey upon them nor burn them, the ascending sooty
particles are stay'd about it and fix'd, so as that about the end of that
ragg or filament of the snuff, whence the greatest part of the steams
issue, there is conglobated or fix'd a round and pretty uniform cap, much
resembling the head of a Mushrom, which, if it be of any great bigness, you
may observe that its underside will be bigger then that which is above the
ragg or stem of it; for the Oyl that is brought into it by filtration,
being by the bulk of the cap a little shelter'd from the heat of the flame,
does by that means issue as much out beneath from the stalk or downwards,
as it does upwards, and by reason of the great access of the adventitious
smoak from beneath, it increases most that way. That this may be the true
reason of this _Phaenomenon_, I could produce many Arguments and
Experiments to make it probable: As,

First, that the _Filtration_ carries the Oyl to the top of the Week, at
least as high as these raggs, is visible to one that will observe the snuff
of a burning Candle with a _Microscope_, where he may see an Ebullition or
bubbling of the Oyl, as high as the snuff looks black.

Next, that it does steam away more then burn; I could tell you of the dim
burning of a Candle, the longer the snuff be which arises from the
abundance of vapours out of the higher parts of it.

And, thirdly, that in the middle of the flame of the Candle, neer the top
of the snuff, the fire or dissolving principle is nothing neer so strong,
as neer the bottom and out edges of the flame, which may be observ'd by the
burning asunder of a thread, that will first break in those parts that the
edges of the flame touch, and not in the middle.

And I could add several Observables that I have taken notice of in the
flame of a Lamp actuated with Bellows, and very many others that confirm me
in my opinion, but that it is not so much to my present purpose, which is
onely to consider this concreet in the snuff of a Candle, so farr as it has
any resemblance of a Mushrom, to the consideration of which, that I may
return, I say, we may also observe:

In the fifth place, that the droppings or trillings of Lapidescent waters
in Vaults under ground, seem to constitute a kind of _petrify'd_ body,
form'd almost like some kind of Mushroms inverted, in so much that I have
seen some knobb'd a little at the lower end, though for the most part,
indeed they are otherwise shap'd, and taper'd towards the end; the
generation of which seems to be from no other reason but this, that the
water by soaking through the earth and Lime (for I ghess that substance to
add much to it _petrifying_ quality) does so impregnate it self with stony
particles, that hanging in drops in the roof of the Vault, by reason that
the soaking of the water is but slow, it becomes expos'd to the Air, and
thereby the outward part of the drop by degrees grows hard, by reason that
the water gradually evaporating the stony particles neer the outsides of
the drop begin to touch, and by degrees, to dry and grow closer together,
and at length constitute a crust or shell about the drop; and this soaking
by degrees, being more and more supply'd, the drop grows longer and longer,
and the sides harden thicker and thicker into a Quill or Cane, and at
length, that hollow or pith becomes almost stop'd up, and solid: afterwards
the soaking of the _petrifying_ water, finding no longer a passage through
the middle, bursts out, and trickles down the outside, and as the water
evaporates, leaves new superinduc'd shells, which more and more swell the
bulk of those Iceicles, and because of the great supply from the Vault, of
_petrifying_ wafer, those bodies grow bigger and bigger next to the Vault,
and taper or sharpen towards the point; for the access from the arch of the
Vault being but very slow, and consequently the water being spread very
thinly over the surface of the Iceicle, the water begins to settle before
it can reach to the bottom, or corner end of it; whence, if you break one
of these, you would almost imagine it a stick of Wood _petrify'd_, it
having so pretty a resemblance of pith and grain, and if you look on the
outside of a piece, or of one whole, you would think no less, both from its
vegetable roundness and tapering form; but whereas all Vegetables are
observ'd to shoot and grow perpendicularly upwards, this does shoot or
propend directly downwards.

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