3^4 GENERATION. Sect. XXXIX. 2. 



without a mother, I contend that the mother does not contribute 

 to the formation of the living ens in animal generation, but is 

 neceffary only for fupplying its nutriment and oxygenation. 



There is another vegetable fact publiflied by M. Koelreuter, 

 which he calls " a complete metamorphofis of one natural {pe- 

 des of plants into another," which (hews, that in feeds as well 

 as in buds, the embrycri proceeds from the male parent, though 

 the form of the fubfeq'uent mature plant is in part dependent on 

 the female. M. Koelreuter impregnated a ftigma of the nico- 

 tiana ruftica with the farina of the nicotiana paniculata, and cb- 

 ttrned prolific feeds from it. With the plants which fprung 

 from thefe feeds, he repeated the experiment, impregnating them 

 with the farina of the nicotiana paniculata. As the mule plants 

 which he thus produced were prolific, he continued to impreg- 

 nate them for many generations with the farina of the nicotiana 

 paniculata, and they became more and more like the male par- 

 ent, till he at length obtained fix plants in every refpect perfect- 

 ly fimilar to the nicotiana paniculata ; and in no refpect refem- 

 bling their female parent the nicotiana ruftica. Blumenbach oil 

 Generation. 



3. It is probable that the infects, which are faid to require but 

 one impregnation for fix generations, as the aphis (fee Amenit. 

 Academ.) produce their progeny in the manner above defcribed, 

 that is, without a mother, and not without a father •, and thu* 

 experience a lucina fine concubitu. Thofe who have attended 

 to the habits of the polypus, which is found in the ftagnant wa- 

 ter of our ditches in July, a^rm, that the young ones Branch out 

 from the fide of the parent like the buds of trees, and after a 

 time feparate themfelves from them. This is fo analogous to 

 the manner in which the buds of trees appear to be produced, 

 that thefe polypi may be confidered as all male animals, produ- 

 cing embryons, which require no mother to fupply them with a 

 nidus, or with nutriment, and oxygenation. 



This lateral or lineal generation of plants, not only obtains in 

 the buds of trees, which continue to adhere to them, but 

 beautifully feen in the wires of knot-grafs, polygonum aviculare, 

 and in thofe of ftrawberries, fragaria vefca. In thefe an elonga- 

 ted creeping bud is protruded, and, where it touches the ground, 

 takes root, and produces a new plant derived from its father, 

 from which it acquires both nutriment and oxygenation ; and 

 in ccnfcquence needs no maternal apparatus for thefe purpofes. 

 In viviparous flowers, as thofe of allium magicum, and polygo- 

 num viviparurnj the anthers and the ltigmas become effete and 

 perifli *, and the lateral or paternal offspring fucceed inftead of 



feeds, 



