Sect. XIII. 5. t. ANIMATION. 77 



and float on the furface of the water to the female ones. Botan- 

 ic Garden, Part II. Art. Vallifneria. Other flowers of the 

 clafles of monecia and diecia, and polygamia, difcharge the fe- 

 cundating farina, which floating in the air is carried to the ftig- 

 ma of the female flowers, and that at confiderable diftances* 

 Can this be effected by any fpecific attraction ? or, like the dif- 

 fufion of the odorous particles of flowers, is it left to the cur- 

 rents of winds, and the accidental mifcarriages of it counteract- 

 ed by the quantity of its production ? 



2* This leads us to a curious inquiry, whether vegetables have 

 ideas of external things ? As all our ideas are originally received 

 by our fenfes, the que (lion may be changed to, whether vegeta- 

 bles poflefs any organs of fenfe ? Certain it is, that they poflefs 

 a fenfe of heat and cold, another of moifture and drynefs, and 

 another of light and darknefs ; for they clofe their petals occa- 

 fionally from the prefence of cold, moifture, or darknefs. And 

 it has been already (hewn, that thefe actions cannot be perform- 

 ed fimply from irritation, becaufe cold and darknefs are negative 

 quantities, and on that account feniation or volition are implied, 

 and in confequence a fenforium or union of their nerves. So 

 when we go into the light, we contract the iris ; not from any 

 ftimulus of the light on the fine mufcles of the iris, but from its 

 motions being aflbciated with the fenfation of too much light on 

 the retina : which could not take place without a fenforium or 

 centre of union of the nerves of the iris with thofe of vifion. 

 See Botanic Garden, Part I. Canto 3. 1. 440 note. 



Befides thefe organs of fenfe, which diftinguifti cold, moifture, 

 and darknefs, the leaves of mimofa, and of diomea, and of dvo- 

 fera, and the ftamens of many flowers, as of the berberry, and 

 the numerous clafs of fyngenefia, are fenfible to mechanic im- 

 pact, that is, they poflefs a fenfe of touch, as well as a common 

 fenforium ; by the medium of which their mufcles are excited 

 into action. Laftly, in many flowers the anthers, when mature, 

 approach the ftigma, in others the female organ approaches to 

 the male. In a plant of collinfonia, a branch of which is now 

 before me, the two yellow ftamens 1 are about three eights of an 

 inch high, and diverge from each other at -an angle of about fif- 

 teen degrees, the purple ftyle is half an inch high, and in fome 

 flowers is now applied to the ftamen on the right hand, and in 

 others to that of the left ; and wilJ, I fuppofe, change place to- 

 morrow in thofe, where the anthers have not yet eifufed 

 their powder. 



I alk, by what means are the anthers in many flowers, and 

 ftigmas in other flowers, directed to find their paramours ? 

 How do either of them know, that the other exifts in their vi- 

 cinity : 



