G 



N 



felled in the apices, which, when npc, burft forth in 

 little particles like duft •, fome of them fall into the 





orifice of the piftil, and are either conveyed then 

 into the utricle, to fecnndify the female ova, or 

 lodged in the pillil, where, by their magwetic virtue, 

 they draw the nouriflimcnt from the other parts ot 

 the plant into the embryos of the fruit, making them 

 fvvell, grow, &c. 



In flowers that turn down, as the Cyclamen, and the 

 Imperial Crown, the piftil is much longer than the 

 ftamina, that their duft may fall from their apices in 

 fufficient quantities on the piftil, for the bufinefs of 



impregnation. 



Mr. Geoffroy affures us, That in all the obfervations 

 he had made, the cutting off the piftil before it 

 could be impregnated by the farina, aftually ren- 

 dered the plant barren for the feafon, and the fruit 



aborrive. 



In many kinds of plants, as the Oak, Pine, Willow, 

 &c. the flowers, Mr. Geoffroy obferves, have their 

 ftamina and apices, whofe farina may eafily im- 

 pregnate the rudiments of the fruit, which are not 



far ofF. 



Indeed there is fome difficulty in reconciling this 

 fyftem with a certain fpecies of plants, which bear 

 flowers without fruit ; and another fpecies of the 

 fame kind and denomination, which bear fruit with- 

 out flowers; fuch are the Palm, Hemp, Hop, Pop- 

 lar, &c. which are hence diftinguiflied into male 

 and female -, for how fhould the farina of the male , 

 here, come to impregnate the ova^of the female ? 

 This difficulty Mr. Geoffroy folves, by fuppofing the 

 wind to be the vehicle tliat conveys the male duft to 

 ■the female uterus, which is confirmed by an inftancc 

 of Jovianus Potanus, of a Angle female Palm-tree 

 growing in a foreft, which never bore fruit, till, 

 having rifen above the other trees of the foreft, 

 and being then in a condition to receive the farina of 

 the male by the wind, it began to bear fruit in abun- 

 dance. ^" ; 

 • As to the manner wherein the farina fecundifies, Mr. 



Geoffroy advances two opinions : , 

 •Firft, That the farina being always found of a ful- 

 phureous compofition, and full of fubtil and pene- 

 ■ trating parts (as appears from its fprightly odour) 

 ' "which, falling on the piftils of the flowers, there re- 

 ~ folves, and the fubtileft parts of it, penetrating the 

 fubftance of the piftil, excite a fermentation, which 

 putting the latent juices of the young fruit in mo- 

 ' tion, occafions the parts to unfold the young plant 

 that is inclofed in the embryo of the feed. 

 In this hypothefis, the plant in miniature is fup- 

 pofed to be contained in the feed, and to want only 

 a proper juice to unfold its parts, and to make them 

 grow. 



The fecond opinion is, That the farina of the male 

 plant is the firft germ or femen of the new plant, and 

 llands in need of nothing to enable it to grow or un- 

 fold, but a fuitable nidus with the juice it finds pre- 

 pared in the embryo of the feed or ovary. 

 It may be obferved, that thefe two theories of vege- 

 table generation bear a ftrift analogy to tbofe two 

 of animal generation, viz. either that the young ani- 

 mal is in the femen mafculinum, and only ftands 

 in need of the juice of the' matrix to cherifli and 

 bring it forth ; or that the female ovum contains the 

 animal, and requires only the male feed to excite a 

 fermentation. 



Mr. Geoffroy rather makes the proper feed to be in 

 the farina, inafmuch as the beft microfcopes do not 

 difcover the leaft appearance of any bud in the little 

 embryos of the grains, when they are examined, be- 

 fore the apices have fhed their duft. 

 In leguminous plants, if the petala and ftamina be 

 removed, and the piftil, or that part which becomes 

 the pod, be viewed with the microfcope before the 

 flower be open, thofe little green trartfparent veficulse, 

 which are to become grains, will appear in their na- 

 tural order, yet ftill fliewing nothing elfe but the mere 

 coat, or flcin of the grain, 



GEN 



If you continue to obfcrve t!^e fiov/ers as the - 

 vance for fcveral days iucceffivclv, you will tr.'^ l 

 to fwell, and, by degrees, to become renlcte VirT"" 

 limpid hquor •, in which, when the farina con.' ^ 

 be Hied, and the leaves of the flower to fall, there -^^ 

 be obferved a little greeniih fpeck, or ^loVuli^'^'fl^lT 

 ing about at large. ^ ' ^'^^' 



There is not at firft any appearance of an oro-ani" 

 tion in this little body • but in time, as it'^crro"^" 

 you may begin to diftinguifti two little leaves likeT-^' 

 fmall horns •, as the little body grows, the liquor T 

 minilhes infenfibly, till at length the o-rain Vrr!^ ^" 

 quite opake -, and upon opening it, the cavity will C 

 found filled with a young plant in miniature^ confiff 

 ing of a little germ, or plantula, a little root ard 

 the lobes of the Bean, or Pea. , ' 



The manner wherein this germ of the apex enters tF 

 veficula of the grain, is not very diificult to deter- 

 mine : for, befides that the cavity of the piftil reach*^' 

 from the top to the embryos of the grains, or thofe 



veficula^, have a little aperture correfpondinc-' to the 

 extremity of the cavity of tlie piftil, fo that the faiail 

 duft,^ or farina, may eafily fall, or find an eafy V-f. 

 fage in the aperture in the mouth of the vcilcls, which 

 is the embryo of the grain. 



The aperture, or cicatricula, is much the fair.e ia 

 both grains 5 and it is eafily obferved m Peas, Beans 

 &c. without a microfcope. ' 



Dr. Patrick Blair, treating of the generation 'of 

 plants, fays, That a .vegetative life is commqn to 

 them, as well as animals •, and that the propaqacioa 

 or produ6tion of the fpecies is the cffcd: of the^A^^'- 

 tative, not the fenfitive life in animals, as well ann 

 plants •„ and that if there be a ncceffity of the con- 

 currence of two different fexes in animals, at the be- 

 ginning or generating of the fpecies, th^ fame lie- 

 ceffity muft be in plants too ; for as a cow, a marc, 

 a hen, a fhe-reptile,"an infed:, &c. cannot produce 

 an animal without the male, no more can it be ^p- 

 pofed, that a plant can produce fertile {^cd mdmt 

 the concurrence of the male plant, or the male parts 

 of the plant. " •' 



Mr. Ray fays. That he will not deny, that both tites 

 and herbs may produce fruit, and even come to ma- 

 turity, without the male feed being Iprinkled upon 

 them. For though .moft birds do not lay eggs with- 

 out congrefs of the male, yet the hen often does it 

 without copulating with the cock, but then tJiefe 

 eggs are barren and wind eggs -, juft fo, though a fe- 

 male plant may produce feed of itfelf, yet that feed is 

 never fertile. For, 



Firft, As the work of generation in animals does not 



proceed from their animal or fenfitive life but fnin 



their vegitative, which being the fame as in plants, ' 



. that operation muft be performed after the fame 



manner in both; therefore, as there is a neccfilty 



of two difi^erent fexes in animals, it muft be io too 

 in plants. 



--Secondly, As pafTive feminal matter in female ani- 

 mals cannot be produftive or fertile of itfelf, without 

 being impregnated, animated, or its particles kt in 

 motion and dilated by the adive principles cf the 

 male feminal matter /neither can the female feed 

 in plants be rendered fertile, until it be iirpregnated 

 by the farina foecundans from the male parts ot the 

 plantSi 



' As to the flowers of plants, if they were notaffiu- 

 ing to, or if there were not feme extraordinary ufe 

 from them, in the perfeftion of the {ctd, they would 

 not be fo often obferved upon plants as they are. But 

 fince there is nofruit or feed witiiout a previous flov/erv 

 and fince where the one is obvious the other is con- 

 fpicuGUS, and fince one is fcarce to be obferved with 

 the naked eye, neither is the other -, this implies a re- 

 lation between them, that the one of them is not to 



climates •, fuch as the Pervinca, the Nymphssa alba 

 minima, and feveral others ^ where the plant exhauus 



the 





