TION. 



SO COMMON FROG. Class HE 



fpring; when the female remains opprefled by 

 the male for a number of days. 

 ^^ ERA " The work of propagation is extremely fingular, 

 it being certain that the frog has not a penis intrans ; 

 there appears a ftrong analogy in this cafe between 

 a certain clafs of the vegetable kingdom and thofe 

 animals ; for it is well known, that when the 

 female frog depofits its fpawn, the male inftan- 

 taneouily impregnates it with what we may call 

 a farina fcecundans^ in the fame manner as the 

 male Palm tree conveys fructification to the flow- 

 ers of the female, which would othei'wife be bar- 



ren*. 



As foon as the frogs are releafed from their tad- 

 pole (late, they immediately take to land •, and if 

 the weather has been hot, and there fall any re- 

 freftiing mowers, you may fee the ground for a 

 confiderable fpace perfectly blackened by myriads 

 of thefe animalcules, feeking for fome fecure lurk- 

 ing places. Some philofophers -f- not giving them- 

 felves time to examine into this phenomenon, ima- 

 gined them to have been generated in the clouds, 

 and fhowered on the earth ; but had they, like our 

 Derham%> but traced them to the next pool, they 

 would have found a better folution of the difficulty. 



As frogs adhere clofely to the backs of their own 

 fpecies, fo we know they will do the fame by fifh : 

 Walton § mentions a ftrange ftory of their deftroy- 



* Shaw's Travels, 224. HaJJelquiJl Trav. Engl. Ed. 416. 

 f Rondtletius, 216. War mil Muf. 327. 

 X Ray 1 * Wifdom Great. 316. % Complete Angler, 161. 



ing 



