Pol. Wherefore, gentle maiden, 



Do you neglect them? 

 Per. For I have heard it said, 



There is an art, which in their piedness shares 



With great creating Nature. 

 Pol. Say, there be: 



Yet Nature is perverted by no mean, 



For Nature makes that mean : so, over that Art, 



Which Nature makes; you see, sweet maid, we marry 



A gentle scyon to the wildest stock, 



And make conceive a bark of baser kind 



A bud of nobler race. This is an Art 



Which does mejid J^ature, change it rather, hut 



The Art itself is Nature. \ 



The Florist, in fact^ raises this fine assemblage of plants from seed, and the botanist should 

 excuse him his care, when he can draw from his labours the strongest arguments in favour of 

 the sexes of plants. 



" This admirable flower is of all others the most delightful, as well for its agreeable scent as 

 for its beautiful colours. The varieties of it are hardly to be numbered, every year producing 

 new sorts raised from seed. Some of the choicest kinds are kept up by slips, layers, or cuttings, 

 but no seeds are to be obtained from these, for, after a few years propagation in this way, they 

 indeed flower, yet, even if a pistillum be formed, and any seeds are produced, these are always 

 found to be abortive. § Most of the other double flowers, such as have increased corollas^ are 



II " I am persuaded," says Linnaeus, in his Sponsalia Plantarum, " from many considerations, that those numerous and most valuable 

 varieties of plants, which are daily seen adorning our gardens, or are used for culinary purposes, have been produced by the intermixture of 

 species; for I cannot give my assent to the opinion of those who imagine all varieties to have been occasioned by a change of soil. If this 

 were the case, the plants would return to their original form, provided they were removed to their original situation." The following is a 

 curious anecdote, recorded by Ray, which confirms this doctrine. 



" Baal, a gardener at Brentford, ha-ving cultivated a remarkably fine cabbage, sold a large quantity of the seeds to several gardeners about 

 the suburbs of London. They committed these to the ground after the usual manner, but instead of the sort Baal had made them believe 

 would spring up, they proved to be chiefly the Brassica Longifolia instead of the Florida. His incensed customers in a body instantly 

 commenced in Westminster-hall a prosecution against him. The unfortunate man being unable to prove his innocence before the judges, 

 the court found him guilty of fraud, and he was condemned not only to restore the price given for the seeds, but was likewise obliged to 

 pay each gardener for his loss of time, and for the ground that had been uselessly occupied. His character and circumstances were in con- 

 sequence ruined; the robust health of the innocent man becoming gradually impaired, he paid an untimely debt to Nature. Had the judges 

 been at all apprized of the sexual hypothesis, or had this honest man known, from careful observation, the use of the farina in rendering the 

 pistillum productive, Baal would not have been found guilty of a crime, but the accident would have been attributed to the true cause, the 

 fortuitous impregnation of the Brassica Florida by the farina of the Brassica Longifolia growing in its neighbourhood." 



This fact is proved by Miller, the illustrious author of the Gardener s Dictionary, now rendered a work of the very fi.rst eminence by 

 the learned and very valuable additions of Professor Martyn, in the last edition, which, to use the panegyric of Linnceus, " merits rather 

 the appellation of a philosophic and botanical Dictionary for Botanists." 



Miller planted out three distinct rows of cabbages. In the first row he put a dozen of red cabbages; in the second a dozen of white; 

 and in the third a dozen of savoys. As soon as these had done flowering he cut them all down, save one savoy, the seeds of which he 

 carefully preserved. These seeds produced him red cabbages, white cabbages, savoys, some savoys with red ribs, and in some a mixture 

 of all the three sorts in the same plant. This is a curious botanical fact, which the truly ingenious Mr. Knight is now turning to a valu- 

 able account for the improvement of our apples and other fruits. 



§ This doctrine is thus expressed by Dr. Darwin : 



So grafted trees with shadowy summits rise, c o 



Spread their fair blossoms, and perfume the skies; 



Till canker taints the vegetable blood. 



Mines round the bark, and feeds upon the wood. 



So, years successive, from perennial roots ' 



The wire or bulb with lessen'd vigour shoots. 



Till curled leaves or barren flowers betray 



A waning lineage, verging to decay; 



Or till, amended by connubial powers. 



Rise seedling progenies from sexual flowers. 



B also 



