Part 50

The colour opake white. From Faversham Creek: very rare.

BUCCINUM LONGIUSCULUM. Fig. 26. B. turritum quinque anfractibus apertura ovali. The taper whilk of five spires with an oval aperture.

The colour white semipellucid and glossy. In Faversham Creek only; but not uncommon there.

VOLUTA.

_THE VOLUTE._

VOLUTA ALBA. Fig. 27. V. alba opaca longitudinaliter striata. The white opake volute. From Sandwich and Shepey island: not uncommon.

This shell resembles Mr. Pennant’s voluta Jonensis, but differs in the form of the aperture, as well as in the size.

BULLA.

_THE DIPPER._

BULLA REGULBIENSIS. Fig. 28. B. crassa apertura medio coarctata. The thick dipper, with a compressed aperture.

The colour white and opake. From Reculver: very rare.

NAUTILUS.

_THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS._

NAUTILUS BECCARII. Fig. 29. N. spiralis umbilicatus geniculis insculptis. The spiral umbilicated nautilus with deep joints.

The colour, while the fish is alive, is a fine pellucid crimson; when dead, is white. It is found alive on the fucus vesiculosus, and is a very common shell on all the coast, and seems to be an universal litoral one, by the numbers found at Rimini, and in the sand of the South Seas.

Lin. S. N. p. 1162, No. 276. Nautilus Beccarii. Planch. Tab. 1. Fig. 1. Gualtier, Tab. 19. Fig. H, H, I.

NAUTILUS CRISPUS. Fig. 30. N. spiralis geniculis crenatis. The spiral nautilus with crenated joints.

The colour opake white. The finest specimens are from Shepey: not uncommon.

Lin. S. N. p. 1162, No. 275. crispus. Planch. T. 1. f. 2. Gualt. T. 19. f. A. D.

NAUTILUS CALCAR. Fig. 31. N. spiralis apertura lineari geniculis elevatis. The spiral nautilus, with a narrow aperture and raised joints.

The colour opake white. From Shepey island: not common.

Lin. S. N. 1162, No. 274, calcar. Pl. T. 1. f. 3, 4. Gualt. T. 19. f. C. B.

NAUTILUS LÆVIGATULUS. Fig. 32. N. spiralis geniculis lævibus. The spiral nautilus with smooth joints.

The colour semipellucid, white and glossy. From Sandwich and Seasalter: not common.

NAUTILUS DEPRESSULUS. Fig. 33. N. spiralis utrinque subumbilicatus geniculis depressis plurimis. The spiral subumbilicated nautilus, with many depressed joints.

The colour opake white. From Reculver: very rare.

NAUTILUS UMBILICATULUS. Fig. 34. N. spiralis umbilicatus geniculis sulcatis. The umbilicated spiral nautilus, with furrowed joints.

The colour opake white. From Sandwich: not common.

NAUTILUS CRASSULUS. Fig. 35. N. spiralis crassus utrinque umbilicatus geniculis lineatis. The thick spiral doubly umbilicated nautilus, with fine joints.

The colour opake white. From Reculver: exceeding rare.

NAUTILUS LOBATULUS. Fig. 36. N. spiralis lobatus anfractibus supra rotundatis subtus depressioribus. The spiral lobated nautilus, with the spires rounded on the upper side, and depressed on the under.

The colour opake white. From Whitstable: not common.

NAUTILUS CARINATULUS. Fig. 37. N. oblongus carinatus apertura lineari ovali. The oblong carinated nautilus, with a narrow oval aperture.

The colour whitish, transparent like glass. From Seasalter and Sandwich: very rare.

NAUTILUS SUBARCUATULUS. Fig. 38. N. subarcuatus geniculis exertis. The bending nautilus with raised joints.

The colour opake brown. From Shepey island: very rare.

MYTILUS.

_THE MUSCLE._

MYTILUS PHASEOLUS. Fig. 39. M. lævis valvulis antice inflexis. The smooth muscle, with the valves inflected in front.

The colour brown and glossy. From a fresh water stream near Faversham: common.

MYTILUS PUNCTATULUS. Fig. 40. M. subrhombiformis punctatus. The subrombic dotted muscle.

The colour pellucid white. From Sandwich: common.

MYTILUS DISCORS. Fig. 41. M. discors areis tribus distinctis. The divided muscle.

The colour opake brown. From Sandwich: not common.

Lin. S. N. 1159, No. 261. Da Costa Br. Conch, p. 221. Tab. 17. f. 1. where it is exactly described, and as badly engraved.

ANOMIA.

_THE SCALE._

ANOMIA SQUAMULA. Fig.42. A. squamula. The scale anomia.

The colour opake white and glossy. From Sandwich: not uncommon.

Lin. S. N. 1151, No. 221. This shell is well described by Da Costa; but neither he, or Mr. Pennant, have caused it to be engraved.

ARCA.

_THE ARC._

ARCA MODIOLUS. Fig. 43. A. oblonga striata antice angulata. The oblong striated arc, with the foreside angulated.

The colour opake white. From Sandwich: not uncommon.

Lin. S. N. p. 1141, No. 171. Arca Modiolus.

CARDIUM.

_THE COCKLE._

CARDIUM MURICATULUM. Fig. 44. C. subcordatum antice muricatum. The heart cockle, with the front muricated.

The colour opake white. From Shepey island: not uncommon.

LEPAS.

_THE ACORN-SHELL._

LEPAS STRIGATULUS. Fig. 45. L. balanus striatus apertura obliqua. The striated acorn-shell, with an oblique aperture.

The colour light brown. From Sandwich, on the roots of sea-weeds, the finest specimens on lobsters: not uncommon.

ECHINUS.

_THE SEA-URCHIN._

ECHINUS LOBATULUS. Fig. 46. E. subrotundus planus lobatus. The flat roundish lobated echinus.

The colour opake white. From Reculver: rare.

ASTERIAS.

_THE STAR-FISH._

ASTERIAS TRIRADIATA. Fig. 47. A. triradiata lævis. The smooth three-rayed star-fish.

The colour white, transparent as glass. On all the different shores that have been examined.

Having thus described a few specimens of those pleasing microscopical objects, minute shells, I shall agreeably to the intimation given in the note to page 613, proceed to

A DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF A VARIETY OF VEGETABLE SEEDS.[155]

[155] To the names as given by Dr. Parsons, those adopted by Linnæus are here added.

LITHOSPERMUM OFFICINALE. Plate XV. Fig. 1. Ibid. Linn. Gromwell. This seed is in figure exactly like a human heart without the auricles, but has no flat or depressed part on its sides; it is pretty circular round its thickest part, and terminates in a blunt cone. At the thickest extremity there is a circular roughness, which is the umbilicus, and from thence to the cone on the shortest side it is bisulcated longitudinally; so that the space between the sulci is a kind of ridge, nor do either sulci or ridge extend to either extremity of the seed; the rest of the surface is smooth and polished, the ground a light ash-colour, with a shade or cloud of yellow or brown.

These seeds are very hard, and the ash-coloured shell is brittle like that of a hen’s egg; which being broken, appears to be lined with a light olive-coloured uniform membrane, which encloses a nucleus of a Spanish snuff-colour, pretty smooth, and of the same form with its shell, being in close contact with it all round.

The natural size of a middling grain of this seed is about the eighth part of an inch long, and the ninth of an inch in diameter at the roundest part.

CYMINUM. Fig. 2. Cuminum C. Linn. Cummin. This seed is double, though fixed side by side to one little stem; both which while together seem like one, and are ribbed in an uneven manner longitudinally, having great numbers of little threads or fibres sticking out all over them, which makes them look hoary. They are thick in the middle and run to a cone at each end. At the upper extremity there is an appearance like a bifurcation in the stilus, each of them belonging to its particular seed; this appears when the seeds are separated.

These seeds are of a darkish straw-colour, the little threads or fibres being much lighter than the body of the seed. Each of these seeds contains in it a kernel of an olive-colour, and exactly in shape like a waterman’s boat, and of the same proportion, having a concave and convex side; the latter has a blunt ridge like the keel of a boat, and the former has a white line from one end to the other, which proves to be a ridge, to which the stilus that rises from the little stem of the seed, adheres to support it.

When the seeds are together upon the stem their length is about the fifth part of an inch, and about an eighth part of an inch in the broadest part.

PAPAVER ALBUM. Fig. 3. P. somniferum. Linn. Poppy. This is a little yellowish white seed exactly resembling in shape a sheep’s kidney, having a yellow place about the hollow part, which is its umbilicus, analogous to the hollow part of the kidney into which the blood-vessels (emulgents) enter.

If it be viewed on the back or convex part, concealing the hollow, it is exactly shaped like an egg, having one end somewhat rounder than the other.

All over its surface it has superficial cells, formed by ridges that rise from the surface, which are some heptagons, some pentagons, but for the most part hexagons, though not precisely of equal sides; and the bottoms of these cells seem to be very porous.

The seeds seem very light and springy, as a gentle blast of ones breath is capable of blowing them away, or a touch of any thing of making them roll a considerable way. As to their size, they are not above a twenty-fourth part of an inch long, and about a thirtieth part broad or thick.

CARDUUS BENEDICTUS. Fig. 4. Centaurea Benedicta. Linn. Blessed Thistle. The body of this seed is about twice as long as it is thick, is round and shaped much like a nine-pin, only instead of being small at the upper end, it has a stricture, from whence arises a beautiful crown of ten angles or points, out of which come also ten aristæ or spiculæ like ivory, about the length of the body of the seed, running taper upward, and set round in an uniform manner. Within the circle of these long spikes there are ten more, which are but very short, and of the same colour and consistence with the others. When these are all plucked off, the vestiges of the circles they form appear in the upper surface of the crown; in the middle of which a little process arises, but very superficially. That part which appears circular is white, and the rest of this surface, of the corona, of the same colour with the rest of the body of the seed, which is a sort of an olive-colour.

The body of the seed is of the sulcated kind, and looks exactly like a fluted pillar, and the surface shines as if varnished with some gummy substance.

At the lower or small end of this seed, there is an opening reaching up above a third of the length of the body of the seed, which discovers a white root, shaped like a cone at the bottom, and rising thicker by degrees till it divides into three limbs; these run taper upwards, till they are lost in the parenchyma of the seed, which at the place of their entrance appears somewhat fungous, but is more compact and clammy through its substance.

The length of the body is more than two eighths of an inch, and the aristæ exactly the same length. The corona is its umbilicus.

PLANTAGO. Fig. 5. P. Major. Linn. Plantain. By the imperfect idea we have of this seed from its minuteness, it may seem like a flea, as any small speck would, if a little oblong; yet its form is not constant, that is, there are scarce two of them precisely alike, some being perfectly elliptical, some with blunt angles, and some approaching a spheroid. They have a whitish mark on one side, which is the umbilicus of the seed, from whence the first rudiments of the plant spring, and the surface is entirely granulated over, and has a general appearance like some kinds of plumb-stones; the surface also shines a little, as if oiled or moist, and their colour is brown. One of the seeds cut transversely appears to have the shell or covering pretty strong in proportion to its size, which contains a parenchyma that is very porous and succulent. It is about a sixteenth part of an inch long, and a twenty-second broad.

STAPHIS AGRIA. Fig. 6 and 7. Delphinum S. A. Linn. Stavesacre. The seeds of this plant are rough and angular, inclining to a triangle, although imperfectly so. They may be considered as having a basis or apex; the basis is thick and clumsy, and the apex runs to an angular point, which point is the umbilicus of the seed, out of which its first rudiments arise; it also has a convex and a plane or concave side; the former, Fig. 7, is rough, by reason of its being covered all over with porous cells, the ridges of which are also depressed or indented with rough pores, and granulated as if stuck full of sand. The concave surface, Fig. 6, is also rough, but not in the same manner, and so are the sides, which have a little flatness; these also are porous and sandy, and before the microscope, shine, and are coloured like dirty brown sugar-candy. The concave surface, notwithstanding the roughness, has one longitudinal ridge, and sometimes more, running from the basis to the apex, which has the same granulated surface with the rest. It contains a parenchyma, which is of a yellowish grey colour, and is moist and succulent.

This seed is in its natural size about two eighths of an inch long from its basis to the apex, and near as broad; however, some are broader in proportion to their length than others, and they are one eighth of an inch thick.

ANISUM. Fig. 8 and 9. Pimpinella A. Linn. Anise. Two of these seeds grow together upon one little stalk; when they are pulled asunder, they appear to have a flat and a convex surface. On the convex surface, Fig. 8, each seed has three ribs placed at equal distances from one another, which are porous and a little rough, being of a straw-colour; and the spaces between them are also rough and porous, but of an olive-colour. The flat surface, Fig. 9, has a white ridge running longitudinally from its basis to the apex in the middle; this white ridge or line serves to cling to the stilus, upon which it sticks. The stilus is also white, and has the same contexture with the ridge, and is bifid, in order to support two seeds with their flat sides together, which keeps them the more compact and less liable to injuries than if a single seed stuck on. It is certain, a single stilus would do as well to support two seeds as the bifid one, for even the two stick together as if single, if there was not a necessity for a double stilus, for a very important reason; which is, that when the seeds are ripe, they would stick on a single one, till the time of their being scattered about would pass, which would be a detriment to their propagation; but the stilus being double, and of a springy nature, the two parts are glued together, as long as moisture remains about the seeds capable of keeping them together; but when the seeds are grown ripe and dry, then this moisture is exhaled, and the stilus, as well as the flat surfaces of the seeds, begin to contract from their former plumpness; the stilus first begins to split asunder, and thereby separates the two surfaces of the seeds, each of which sticks loosely to its particular limb of the stilus; till at length the remaining moisture exhaling more and more, it grows rigid, and cracks with a blast of wind, and so the seed is scattered or sown in the ground in its due time. This is a most excellent provision of nature, and highly worth regard.

When the two seeds are sticking together, they have a round end which is the basis, and grow smaller by degrees upward, till they become an apex, having upon each seed a kind of fungous or bulbous corona, which is the umbilicus of the seed; and the shape of the two together may be compared to that of a given fig reversed. The parenchyma of these seeds is that of a pale greenish olive-colour. They are more exactly of a size than most other seeds, and are each one-eighth part of an inch long, and more than half that breadth.

FŒNICULUM DULCE. Fig. 10 and 11. Anethum F. Linn. Sweet Fennel. In viewing these seeds, they do not look much unlike one species of the cucumber in general, some of them being thicker and longer than others, and some straighter; but upon applying the microscope, the ridges appear high, and form deep furrows.

Two of these seeds grow together upon the same little stalk, which is divided, like that of the anise seed, into a double or bifid stilus, in the same manner, and for the same reasons; when the two are pulled asunder, they appear to have a flat surface, Fig. 10, and a round and ridged one, Fig. 11. On the former, these characters are conspicuous: viz. 1. The whitish cortex or covering of the seed shews its edge distinctly. 2. Withinside this edge a white fungous substance appears running parallel to, and in close contact with it, on each side from end to end, being both together about one-third of the breadth of the seed; and between these, in the center, there appears a dark brown elliptical substance, which, upon separating the cortical and fungous coverings, appears to be a nucleus, whose internal substance is of an olive colour and something succulent. On the external surface there appears three high ridges, and when the flat faces of the seeds are close together upon the stilus, so as to seem but one, these three ridges on each seed and the two edges of each meeting firmly together, form eight regular ridges equally divided upon that round body that we have before said to resemble a cucumber. The extremity which is fixed to the stem is smaller than the other; the latter has a fungous kind of process arising from the body of the seed, which is the umbilicus of the seed. The ridges are of a light straw-colour, and the bottoms of the sulci they form are darkish. A middling seed is somewhat more than two-eighths of an inch long, and above half that breadth.

GRANA PARADISI. Fig. 12 and 13. Amomum G. P. Linn. Grains of Paradise. These seeds are of an irregular form, but may be said to have a basis and apex; the basis is generally so flat as to render it capable of standing well upon it; the sides consist of several flats and angles, and the apex looks very much like the mouth of a purse drawn or gathered up close together.

The body of the seed is of a reddish brown colour, the surface much granulated and rough; and the apex, which is its umbilicus, degenerates from this reddish brown colour into a yellow, appearing in little oblong ridges or plates.

Upon making a transverse section of this seed, a most beautiful appearance presents itself; the external cortex is very thin, and retains the same colour through its substance with the outer surface; this incloses a black, porous, pitchy substance, which is much thicker than the cortex, in close contact with it, and at the angles of the seed is pretty considerable. Next to this the parenchyma appears, as white as the finest white salt, and radiated from the center outward; and in this transverse section seems to have a round hole in the center of one of the divided parts, and a process answerable to it in the other. If a longitudinal incision be made through the middle, the appearance will be as in Fig. 13, when the center of the white parenchyma appears exactly like a modern vinegar glass, commonly called a cruet, the bottom of which tends obliquely towards the basis, and the top towards the apex of the seed. The surface of this part looks polished, and the colour is a yellowish olive; nor does it look unlike a gummy or resinous body; however, we cannot be certain what its substance is, notwithstanding its great resemblance to that kind of matter. The white parenchyma is very singular, being almost divided into two lobes by this little cruet, whose top runs up into or is lost in a remarkable circular part, which has a rising towards the umbilicus of the seed in form of an acorn, and this rising stands in the open place, into which the pursy umbilicus leads. As to its natural dimensions, an ordinary seed is somewhat more than the eighth of an inch long, and about an eighth thick.

PETROSELINUM. Fig. 14. Apium P. Linn. Common Parsley. The seeds of this garden parsley, being of the umbellated kind, grow two upon a little stem, whose bifid stilus supports them like the ammi or smallage; they are striated or ribbed like those, having three of such ribs on the convex part, spread further asunder, and being much more conspicuous than those of either of the seeds just mentioned. There is another rib which runs on each side of the seed, which is its lateral rib, and that which runs round the edge of the flat surface makes it resemble the edge or gunnel of a barge or lighter, to which each of these bears some resemblance. This seed is considerably larger than either, and much longer in proportion to their size; the colour of the interstices between the ribs is a dusky olive, and the ribs of an oaker yellow. They are pretty round where they rest on the stem, and run up elliptically to an apex, where there is a fungous corona, which is the umbilicus. In making a transverse section through the middle of one of them, the parenchyma appears of the same form with the cortex, having this remarkable property, that between the ridges or ribs are canals, formed of the cortex and the surface of the parenchyma, containing a brown balsamic fluid, with which they are filled from one end to the other of the seed; and in some seeds this balsam appears all round between the parenchyma and the cortex. This will be further explained when we come to speak of the seseli, in which this is so apparent, that a transverse view of that seed will serve for both. The parenchyma is somewhat succulent, and of a greyish olive colour. An ordinary seed is one-eighth of an inch long, and about a sixteenth thick.

PETROSELINUM MACEDONICUM. Fig. 15 and 16. Bubon Macedonicum. Linn. Macedonian Parsley. These are long slender elliptical seeds, growing like the seeds of other umbelliferous plants, two together on the stem and bifid stilus; when they are pulled asunder they appear each to have a convex or back side, and a flat part or belly. The convex side, Fig. 15, may be said, from its roundness at one end, and smallness at the other, to have a basis and apex; the former is round, and after swelling a little towards the middle, runs taper upwards, till within one-fifth of its length there arise two rough hairy processes, one on each side, like ears, and the rest runs to a point; so that the entire back surface is a near representation of a mouse lying flat. The colour of the body of this seed is a kind of olive, but the hoary fibres all over are of an ash-colour, and the striæ or ridges much the same.

The flat surface, Fig. 16, is of a brown colour and porous, having none of these fibres upon it; and is surrounded by an edge or ridge, like those on the back of the seed, which are also hoary. Upon this surface the bifid stilus is apparent, one extremity of which terminates at a hollow part, that may be likened to the under jaw of the mouse, between the roots of the ears; and the other stands loose, to which the fellow-seed was also attached.

The ridges are also hollow, like those of the garden parsley, and contain such a balsamic fluid as that; but this being so exceedingly slender, requires the greatest magnifier of the microscope for opake objects to discern it. This seed is about an eighth of an inch long, and about a twentieth broad.

CORIANDRUM. Fig. 17, 18, and 19. C. sativum. Linn. Coriander. The seed of common coriander is spherical when entire, and may be said to have two poles; the lower, or that into which the stem is fixed, which forms a fungous hole, and the upper or little apex, as at Fig. 17, this is the umbilicus of the seed. From one of these poles to the other several ridges or striæ run like the lines of longitude upon the globe, between which there are several roughnesses; they are of a yellowish oaker colour, and about the sixth of an inch in diameter, or something less.