inquiry nearly at the same time, and each of the three philosophers shewed that the dust on the lower surface of the leaves consists of an aggregation of small capsules, each surrounded by a jointed elastic ring, by the contraction and elasticity of which the capsules, when arrived at maturity, are opened with a spring, and the seeds (sporules) scattered to a distance; the whole exhibiting, Swammerdam remarks, the most wonderful construction that the mind of man can imagine, and so eminently displaying the contrivance, order, providence, and wisdom of the great Author of all things, that, perhaps, a more striking specimen of these His adorable perfections is not to be found in any other part of the visible creation. The size of the capsules, he states, is so minute that they are almost invisible to the naked eye, it being scarcely possible to make a dot on paper, with the finest pencil, of so small dimensions. In each of these capsules he reckoned about forty-one seeds, which are, of course, invisible to the unassisted eye; to examine them, he fixed some to a hair of his head, and, in comparison, the hair appeared like the mast of a first-rate man-of-war! He believes that there are more than sixty capsules in each little cluster; consequently, at a very low calculation, every one of the latter will contain 2460 seeds. The reflections with which our author concludes his remarks on this subject we shall here subjoin, both on account of their intrinsic value, and as an example of that strain of sentiment and devotional feeling which pervades his writings. "You may hence con-
