And how infinitely smaller then must be the Vessels of a Mite, or the pores
of one of those little Vegetables I have discovered to grow on the
back-side of a Rose-leaf, and shall anon more fully describe, whose bulk is
many millions of times less then the bulk of the small shrub it grows on;
and even that shrub, many millions of times less in bulk then several trees
(that have heretofore grown in _England_, and are this day flourishing in
other hotter Climates, as we are very credibly inform'd) if at least the
pores of this small Vegetable should keep any such proportion to the body
of it, as we have found these pores of other Vegetables to do to their
bulk. But of these pores I have said more elsewhere.
To proceed then, Cork seems to be by the transverse constitution of the
pores, a kind of _Fungus_ or Mushrome, for the pores lie like so many Rays
tending from the center, or pith of the tree, outwards; so that if you cut
off a piece from a board of Cork transversly, to the flat of it, you will,
as it were, split the pores, and they will appear just as they are
express'd in the Figure B of the XI. _Scheme_. But if you shave off a very
thin piece from this board, parallel to the plain of it, you will cut all
the pores transversly, and they will appear almost as they are express'd in
the Figure A, save onely the solid _Interstitia_ will not appear so thick
as they are there represented.
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