242 FUNCTIONS OF 



delineated by Micheli, carefully examined and properly 

 understood by Linnasus as he rambled over the wilds 

 of Lapland^, and at length fully illustrated, and placed 

 out of all uncertainty, by the justly celebrated Hedwig. 

 These parts indeed are still unknown in ferns, or at 

 least no satisfactory explanation of them has reached 

 me, though the seeds and seed-vessels are sufficiently 

 obvious. 



The existence of the parts under consideration is so 

 incontrovertible in every flower around us, that Ponte- 

 dera was reduced to seek plants without stamens among 

 the figures of the Hortus Malabaricus ; but the plates 

 in which he confided are now known to be faulty in 

 that very particular. 



Plants indeed have occasionally abortive stamens in 

 one flower and barren pistils in another, and the Plan- 

 tain-tree, Musa, is described by Linnieus as having five 

 out of its six stamens perfected in such blossoms as 

 ripen no fruit, while those with a fertile germen con- 

 tain only a single ripe stamen, five being ineflTective. 

 This only shows the resources, the wisdom, and the 

 infinite variety of the creation. When the roots are 

 luxuriantly prolific, the flowers are in some measure 

 defective, Nature, relaxing as it were from her usual 

 solicitude, and allowing her children to repose, and 

 indulge in the abundance of good things about them. 

 But when want threatens, she instantly takes the alarm ; 



* This hitherto unknown fact appears in his Tour through that 

 country, lately published in English, v. 1. 185. 



