The Royal Society read and discussed Letter L-159 about reproduction of trees, comparison of reproduction of mammals with the reproduction of plants, and cross-breeding

A letter of Mr. LEEWENHOECK, dated July 13, 1685, was read, shewing, that as in the seeds of plants and trees the young plant or tree is concealed with all its parts, as leaves, vessels, body, root; so in all animal productions the animalcule contains the figure of the animal; it seeming consonant to nature, that the seed of the body of the thing be contained in a very little room.

There were read four letters of Monf. JUSTEL to Mr. ASTON, received during the society's recess, concerning a picture of the French King upon a marble table of twelve feet square and an inch thick, the colours being all sunk into the marble; an incombustible plant, said to be found near the Pyrenees, to make cloth of; Indian partridges, that sometimes eat one another; bitumen brought from Florida; 124 volumes sent from China by Father COUPLET; an exact description of the aqueduct then making in order to carry water to Versailles and Marli; and the change of a girl, who had been baptised as such, into a boy.

Upon occasion of Mr. LEEWENHOECK's letter, it being discoursed concerning the possibility of changing the nature of things, Sir JOHN LOWTHER said, that barley and big interchange or turn from four rows to two, and two to four, as the ground is better or worse.