56 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



off all the anthers of a red tulip before the pollen is emitted ; 

 then take the ripe anthers of a white tulip, and throw the pollen 

 of the white one upon the stigma of the red; the seeds of the 

 red tulip being thus impregnated by one of a different complexion, 

 will next season produce some red, some white, but mostly varie- 

 gated flowers. The hops are of two sorts ; the one male, and 

 the other female ; and that which is commonly called the fruit, 

 is only the calyx expanded and lengthened ; hence the female 

 plants, though not impregnated, can bear cones. This it was 

 that deceived Tournefort, so that he would not acknowledge the 

 sexes of plants, because a female plant of the hop, in the garden 

 at Paris, throve well, and bore fruit in plenty eveiy year, when 

 no male plants were within several miles of it. The same thing 

 happens in the mulberry and blite, the berries of which are only 

 succulent calyxes, but not seed vessels or ovaria. One Richard 

 Baal, a gardener, at Brentford, sold a quantity of cauliflower 

 seed, (Brassica florida) which he raised in his own garden, to 

 several gardeners in the suburbs of London, who carefully sowed 

 the seeds in good ground, but they produced nothing but the 

 common long-leaved cabbage, (Brassica longifolia) for which 

 reason they complained that they were imposed upon, and 

 commenced a suit against Baal in Westminster Hall. The 

 judge's opinion was, that Baal should return the gardeners their 

 money, and also make good their loss of time and crops. This, 

 however, ought not to be considered as a fraud, on the part of 

 the poor gardener, but ought to be ascribed to the impregnation 

 of his good plants by the common cabbage. Wherefore, if we 

 have an excellent sort of cabbage, we ought not to let it flower 

 in the neighborhood of an inferior kind, lest the good sort be 

 impregnated by the dust of the other, whereby the seeds will 

 produce a degenerate race. It is needless to mention more 

 examples, though we could easily deduce some singular experi- 

 ments from many more plants, to corroborate this doctrine of the 

 generation of plants. We shall next mention the utility of insects 

 in the fecundation of plants. In a great many flowers there is a 

 honey juice separated by the flower, which Pontedera thinks is 

 that balsam which the seeds imbibe, to make them keep and 



