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XL Obfervatiqjs on the Flowering of certain Plants. By the Rev. 

 Thomas Marty n, B.D. F.R.S. V, P. L.S. Regius Pro/ if or of Botany 

 in the Univerjity of Cambridge, 



Read July 4, 1797. 



THE improvements in the phyfiology of plants, fince the days 

 of Malphigi and Grew, have by no means kept pace with 

 thofe which have been made in the nomenclature, and in the as- 

 certaining of genera and fpecies by accurate characters, defcriptions 

 and figures, under Linnaeus and his followers. The reafon is ob- 

 vious : in order to afcertain a plant, it is only neceffary to fee and 

 defcribe it once or twice in its itate of greatefr. perfection ; but we 

 are not likely to become acquainted with the internal ftructure and 

 functions of vegetables, till a feries of accurate experiments fhall 

 have been gone through ; or with their life, actions and manners, 

 if we may io fpeak, till we have got together a fund of laborious 

 refearches and obfervations. And there are very few perfons who 

 can facrifice all the numerous calls of bufinefs or pleafure, to beftow 

 a conftant and regular attention to one object, and to become al- 

 moft as ftationary as the plants they are obferving. Even the fol- 

 lowing obfervations, which are almoft too trifling to offer for the 

 confideration of the Linnaean Society, required a regular attention 

 feveral repeated times morning and evening during upwards of 

 fix weeks. 



The 



