50 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



naked eye. Bobart sowed the seeds of ferns, which grew very- 

 well. Plumier discovered the flowers in some of the fern kind. 

 Linnaeus discovered the seeds of mosses. In the prickly club- 

 moss, he observed, that one part of the fructification contained 

 the fertilizing dust, and the other the seeds ; which were evident 

 signs that the plant had both flower and fruit. Michelius has fre- 

 quently numbered the stamens of the fungi, and has sown their 

 seeds which flourished well. From which we may conclude, 

 that these lowest tribes of vegetables are all furnished with flowers 

 and fruit, although, by reason of their exceeding minuteness, they 

 have not hitherto been distinctly known to botanists. In short, 

 there never was a clear and evident example produced of any 

 plant which wanted flowers and fruit ; and therefore we may justly 

 say, that in their fructification consists the essence of plants. 



Universal experience attests, that the existence of the flower 

 always precedes that of the fruit, in the same manner as genera- 

 tion the birth in animals; so that not one example of the con- 

 trary can be produced in any individual. Since in animals all 

 generation precedes the birth, and in vegetables every flower 

 precedes the fruit, we must necessarily ascribe fecundation to 

 the flower, and the birth or exclusion of the seed to the ripe 

 fruit. 



Hence we may define a flower to be the genital organ of a 

 plant serving for fecundation, and the fruit to be the genital organs 

 serving for the birth or maturation of the seed. All flowers, 

 whatever, except the mosses, are furnished with anthers and 

 stigmas, or both together ; and as this holds universally in every 

 species of plant, (the mosses only excepted,) those parts must 

 necessarily constitute the essence of a flower. If we find a 

 flower with anthers, but no stigmas, we may also assuredly find 

 another flower either on the same, or on a different plant of the 

 same species, which has stigmas with the anthers or without 

 them. Pontedera contends, that there are some plants which 

 have no anthers, as for example, the sago palm tree ( Cycas Circi- 

 nalis) the Celtis, or nettle tree, w T ith some others ; but in this he 

 is mistaken ; for even the number of the anthers in those plants 

 he mentions is at present very well known to botanists. 



