Wrote Letter L-188 of 1687-06-13 to members of the Royal Society about wheat and the seeds from a variety of plants

Date:

June 13, 1687

Standard reference information

L-number:

L-188

Leeuwenhoek's number:

Collected Letters number:

100

Collected Letters volume:

Text of the letter in the original Dutch and in English translation from Alle de Brieven / The Collected Letters at the DBNL - De Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren.

The original manuscript, written and signed by Leeuwenhoek, is preserved at the Royal Society (MS. 1921 and EL.L2.12).

Leeuwenhoek's summary

From all editions of Vervolg der Brieven and translated into Latin for all of the editions of Continuatio Epistolarum.

Handelende

Dat het hegin van de planten, die in een Tarw-graan leggen, uyt drie Planten met haar wortels bestaan. Dat de Moer-plant van dese drie Planten al met ses bladeren versien is, dat een Tarw-graan twee bysondere membranen heeft. Dat yder Rogge met vier bysondere Planten verfien is, ende dat de Moeder-plant mede ses bysondere bladeren heeft. Dat in een Garst-graan vijf bysondere planten zijn. De jonge Plant in de Boekweyt heeft vier bladeren, en die leggen het gantsche meel door verspreyt. Van de jonge Plant in Geerst, in Canari-zaad, en in Zuyring-zaad. Dat het gene wy een saad van een Biet-wortel noemen, geen een Zaad, maar een Zaad huysje is, daar 3, 4 a 5 zaaden in leggen. Van het begin van de Plant in Kervel-zaad. Dat het Radys-zaad, Raap-zaad, Cool-zaad, Italiaans Bloem-cool-zaad, Rammelats-zaad, Raap of Knol-zaad, Claver-zaad, Mostert-zaad, Hennip-zaad, Lepel-bladeren-zaad, geen meelagtige stoffe maar alleen bladeren, en wortels in haar hebben. Dat het Sterk kers-zaad een gantsche jonge Plant in zig heeft. Van het Sevengetyde zaad. Dat de Bomen en Planten al afkomstig zijn van den beginne der Schepping.

Treating

That the beginning of the plants, that lie in the wheat grain, from three plants with their roots. That the mother plant of these three plants is already seen with six leaves, that a wheat grain has two separate membranes. That each rye is seen with four separate plants, and that the mother plant has six separate leaves. That in the barley grain are five separate plants. The young plant in the buckwheat has four leaves, that lie spread through the whole flour. Of the young plant in millet, in canary seed, and in sorrel seed. That which we call a seed of a beet-root, is not a seed, but is a seed housing, therein lie 3, 4 or 5 seeds. Of the beginning of the plant in chervil seed. That the radish seed, rape seed, cole seed, Italian califlower seed, black radish seed, turnip seed, clover seed, mustard seed, hemp seed, scurvy-grass seed, no flour-like substance in the young plant. Of the seven seasons seed. That the trees and plants all came from the beginning of creation.

Reception in London

Birch, History, vol IV, p. 541, 8 June 1687 (O.S.) in London:

Part of a letter of Mr. LEEWENHOECK was read concerning the growth of gallnuts, which he found to be excrescencies of oak-leaves occasioned by the laying the eggs of a sort of flies on those leave, which coming to hatch gnaw the ribs or vessels of the leaves, out of the gleeting moisture whereof he conceived these galls to be produced; and that within them there is commonly found a dead fly or worm ingendered therein.

Specimens and methods

Germ of wheat and germinating wheat. Sructure of barley, oats, buckwheat, millet, canary seed, and the seeds of sorrel, beetroot, marjoram, cheril, radish, rape, cauliflower, black radish, turnip, clover, mustard, hemp, scury grass, cress, rocket, and blue melilote.

Manna from Heaven

At the beginning of this letter, Leeuwenhoek shared an experience from his childhood.

In my youth I have often eaten a certain small seed that is called Manna, this seed was cooked in fresh milk, and people always assured one, when the subject was broached, that it was a very healthy dish, and that it did not grow; but that in Poland, it fell from the sky at certain times of the year, and that this seed had to be collected on linen sheets in the morning dew before sunrise.

This grain or seed has often been in my thoughts, and I have not been able to accept the tales that are spread about it.

Now it so happens that about two years ago I obtained a few pounds of such manna, and no sooner did I see this seed than I knew the same, and it having been cooked, also the taste, and when I merely looked at the same with the naked eye, I saw that our nation is being greatly deceived about it, for in each small grain I could distinguish the place where the beginning of the plant had lain.

The public and their opinions

"Everybody free in his own feeling."

At the end of this letter, Leeuwenhoek mentioned once again how people reacted to his observations.

Concerning which great and unimaginable perfectness we may say and conclude that all the trees and plants that grow on the earth, have originated from those trees and plants that were made in the beginning of creation. I should perhaps extend my speculations hereupon still further, but that would (I suppose) be objectionable to some people. I will therefore leave everybody free in his own feeling, and break off in the hope that there may be something, in the present, which will be found agreeable.

Figures

The original drawings are lost. The Dutch and Latin editions that Leeuwenhoek published used the same plates. This letter had so many figures, that Leeuwenhoek had them engraved on three plates (below; click to enlarge). They and the figures on the sidebars came from the 1730 fourth edition of Continuatio Epistolarum. In the text, Leeuwenhoek noted that someone else drew the figures.

He also discussed the figures illustrating his observations at greater length than in other letters.

What he did not have drawn

In this and the following letter, Leeuwenhoek suggested that the person who made the drawings was not always able to see what Leeuwenhoek wanted him to draw.

Plates from Continuatio Epistolarum
Figures 1 - 3
Figures 4 - 10
Figures 11 - 28

I have not had these cut-through roots or stalks in a rye grain drawn, partly because I could not put them so clearly before the draughtsman's (teijckenaer) eyes as those in the wheat. And another reason was, because there was too little difference between those of the rye and wheat, except only that those in the rye were much smaller.

Was Leeuwenhoek's vision better? The "so clearly" suggests that he had trouble finding the focus again. A comment about a drawing later in the same letter supports the focus problem.

The two leaves that were enclosed in the first or outermost leaves, which I have also separated from each other, as it might be possible to demonstrate still smaller leaves in the latter. But I was not able to do that well enough to show it to the draughtsman.

In another case, Leeuwenhoek thought that a drawing was not necessary.

I furthermore went on to examine the barley, whereof I have also taken the beginning of the young plants (after I had bared them of their membrane); and the leaves having been separated, I discovered, therein also, the interior leaves, as I have said of the wheat and rye, and I therefore judged that it was not necessary to have the same drawn.

Limitations of his figures

Oddly enough for an investigator of the minute, the drawings would not always fit on the paper. He was having his letters printed on quarto-sized paper, about today's standard 8 1/2" x 11". In several volumes, he used fold-outs that doubled that size. Nevertheless, they did not fit, as he noted when discussing Fig. 4:

If I were to have the wheat grain drawn in its entirety as it has here been cut through transversely, it would take up far too much space on the paper, for which reason I have here indicated only part of the genuine flour in the wheat grain.

Again, referring to Fig. 11:

I would have had this young plant drawn through the microscope, if it would not (as seen through the microscope) have taken up too much space on the paper. For, whereas the young plants in many seeds take up only little space, or length of the flour (wherein the same lie): it is contrariwise with the young plant in the buckwheat seed, for it is not only with its root and leaves that the same covers the length of the seed: but its leaf or leaves lie so widely extended in the seed, that they even lie stretched along the side of the membrane of the buckwheat.

He continued, referring to Fig. 11:

However, I decided to have the young plant of the buckwheat drawn large enough to be able to recognize the figure and I have also, cut a small piece of the buckwheat on the cross, in order also to indicate thereby the manner in which the embryo lies in the buckwheat. ... Fig: 11. (as I said heretofore) I have had it drawn just big enough to enable one to recognize distinctly the leaves and the beginning of the root or stalk.

At both the beginning and end of the letter, he remarked on his relationship with his draughtsman. Referring to Fig. 2, he noted that he handed his microscope to the engraver.

I separated these interior leaves from each other in such a way that I could not only show them to myself; but I have also put them before a microscope, which I gave into the hands of the engraver, for him to draw these leaves, which previously lay joined inside, but now are separated, just as he would come to see them.

Speaking of Fig. 23, he made a comment about his relationship with his draughtsman:

When the draughtsman (teijckenaer) was drawing this, and some preceding seeds he continually imagined that he was drawing some very tiny flowers, but I left him in that state.

Other publications

While the Royal Society did not publish this letter in Philosophical Transactions, it was extracted twice in foreign journals, as were all the letters in Vervolg der Brieven, Letters 53 through 60. In the year after it was written, Jean Le Clerk published an excerpt, without any figures, in Bibliothèque universelle et historique, vol. 9, pp. 297-301.

In 1689, Otto Mencke pubished a very short extract, again without figures, in Acta eruditorum, vol. 8, p. 172.

Publication history

Related sources, especially Philosophical Transactions, and first editions only of Leeuwenhoek's volumes of letters. For later editions see Related events under Learn more.

Year	Author	Title
1682 - 1731	Mencke, O. (ed.)	Acta eruditorum
1686 - 1718	Clerc, J. le, and J. C. de la Croze	Bibliothèque universelle et historique
1687	Leeuwenhoek, A. van	Vervolg der Brieven
1689	Leeuwenhoek, A. van	Continuatio Epistolarum
1961	Leeuwenhoek, A. van	Alle de Brieven. The Collected Letters. Volume 6

Notes

Alle de Brieven / Collected Letters says sterckkers is a misspelling of "sterke kers".

Another possibilities is that ster-kers or sterrenkers is a distinct plant. See: Wikipedia Tuinkers.

Learn more

Related letters:

What Leeuwenhoek wrote ...
Wrote Letter L-491 of a few years before 1713 to Jan Meerman how barley is filling, but provides little nourishment, also about a membrane in the barley

Period 3 - 1687-1694

Related people:

Members of the Royal Society

Related events:

Date	Event
January 1, 1687	Published Vervolg der Brieven (Continuation of the Letters), Letters 53 - 60
January 1, 1688	Published Vervolg der Brieven (Continuation of the Letters), Letters 53 - 60 (2nd)
January 1, 1689	Published Continuatio Epistolarum (Continuation of the Letters), Letters 53-60
January 1, 1696	Published Continuatio Epistolarum (Continuation of the Letters), Letters 53-60 (2nd)
January 1, 1704	Published Vervolg der Brieven (Continuation of the Letters), Letters 53 - 60 (3rd)
January 1, 1715	Published Continuatio Epistolarum (Continuation of the Letters), Letters 53-60 (3rd)
January 1, 1730	Published Continuatio Epistolarum (Continuation of the Letters), Letters 53-60 (4th)

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Life in Holland

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Wrote Letter L-188 of 1687-06-13 to members of the Royal Society about wheat and the seeds from a variety of plants

Manna from Heaven

"Everybody free in his own feeling."

Figures

What he did not have drawn

Limitations of his figures

Other publications

Life in Holland

in the 1600's