FUNCTIONS OF THE STAMENS AND PISTILS. 189 



Tact so long in dispute. He determined the functions 

 of the Stamens and Pistils, proved these organs to be 

 essential to every plant, and thence conceived the hap- 

 py idea of using them for the purpose of systematical 

 arrangement. In the latter point his merit was alto- 

 gether original ; in the former he made use of the dis- 

 coveries and remarks of others, but set them in so 

 new and clear a light, as in a manner to render them 

 his own. 



We have already mentioned, the two modes by 

 which plants are multiplied, and ha^e shown the im- 

 portant difference between them. Propagation by 

 seed is the only genuine reproduction of the species, 

 and it now remains to prove that the essential organs 

 of the flower are indispensably requisite for the per- 

 fecting of the seed. 



Every one must have observed that the flower of a 

 plant always precedes its fruit. To this tho Meadow 

 Saffron, Colchicum autunwale, seems an ohjertion, the 

 fruit and leaves being perfected in the spring, the blos- 

 soms not appearing till aot'imn ; bota due examination 

 will readily ascertain that the seed-bud formed in au- 

 tumn is the very same which comes to maturity in the 

 following spring. A Pine-apple was once very unex- 

 pectedly cited to me as an instance of fruit being formed 

 before the flower, because the green fruit in that in- 

 stance, as in many others, is almost fully grown before 

 the flowers expand. The seeds however, the essence 

 of the fruit, are only in embryo at this period, just as in 

 the germen of an Apple blossom. 



It was very soon ascertained that flowers are invari- 

 ably furnished with Stamens and Pistils, either in the 

 same individual, or two of the same species, however 

 defective they may be in other parts ; of which Hippu- 



