On the Fecundation of Vegetables, 5«i 



Many experiments of the fame kind were tried on other plants; but it is fufllcientto 

 fay, that all tended to evince, that improved varieties of every fruit and qfculent plants 

 maybe obtained by this procefs, and that nature Intended that a fexual intercourfe (hould 

 take place between neigiibouring plants of the fame fpecies. The probability of this will, 

 I think, be apparent, when we take a view of the variety of methods which nature has 

 taken to difperfe the farina, even of thofe plants in which It has placed the male and 

 female parts within the fame empalement. It is often fcattered by an elaftlc exertion of 

 the filaments, which fupport it on the firfl: opening of the bloflbm, and its exceflive light- 

 nefs renders it capable of being carried to a great diftancc by the wind. Its pofition within 

 the bloflbm is generally well adapted to place It on the bodies of infc£ls ; and the villous 

 coat of the numerous family of bees is not lefs well calculated to carry it. I have fre- 

 quently obferved with great pleafure, the difperfion of the farina of fome of the grafles, 

 ■when the fun had juft rifen in a dewy morning. It feemed to be impelled from the plant 

 with confiderable force ; and being blue was eafily vifible, and very ftrongly refembled in 

 appearance the explofion of a grain of gunpowder. An examination of the flru£ture of 

 the bloflbms of many plants, will immediately point out, that nature has fomething more 

 in view than that its own proper males fhould fecundate each bloflbm ; for the means it 

 employs are always thofe beft calculated to anfwer the intended purpofe. But the farina is 

 often fo placed, that it can never reach the fummit of the pointal, unlefs by adventitious 

 means ; and many-trials have convinced me, that it has no adtlon on any other part of it. 

 In promoting this fexual intercourfe between neighbouring plants of the fame fpecies, 

 nature appears to me to have an important purpofe in view : for independent of Its ftimu* 

 lative power, this intercourfe certainly tends to confine within more narrow limits, thofe 

 variations which accidental richnefs, or poverty of foil ufually produces. It may be ob- 

 je£led, by thofe who admit the exiftence of vegetable mules, that under this extenfive 

 intercourfe thefe mud have been more numerous ; but my total want of fuccefs in many 

 endeavours to produce a fingle mule plant, makes me much difpofed to believe, that 

 hybird plants have been miftaken for mules ; and to doubt (with all the deference I feel 

 for the opinions of Linnaeus and his illuftrious followers) whether nature ever did, or ever 

 will permit the produ£tion of fuch a monfter. The exiftence of numerous mules in the 

 animal world between kindred fpecies is allowed ; but nature has here guarded againft 

 their produftion, by impelling every animal to feek its proper mate ; and amongft the 

 feathered tribe, when from pervcrfion of appetite fexual intercourfe takes place between 

 thofe of diftinft genera*, it has in fome inftances, at lead, rendered the death of the 

 female the inevitable confequence. But in the vegetable world there is not any thing to 

 direft the male to its proper female : its farina is carried by winds and infects to plants of 

 every different genus and fpecies ; and it therefore appears to me (as vegetable mules cer^ 

 tainly are not common) that nature has not permitted them to exift at all. 



* Thjs is faid to be the cafe with the drake and the h»n. 



t cannot' 



