208 ESSAYS ann OBSERVATIONS 
and whether it is fupportable by experiments, 
or a mere hypothefis? 
Sieic re I. 
THEOPHRASTUS, the greateft, as well as 
the eldeft, of the Greek botanifts whofe works 
have been preferved, can beft explain, why 
fome plants of the fame kind were called fe- 
males, and others males, by them. JI know 
fome reckon Crafeva more antient, and co- 
temporary to Hippocrates, on the authority of 
fome epiftles fathered on the old man, and 
annexed to his works. But the learned have 
proven thefe letters to be fpurious ; and that 
Crateva lived not before Mithridates, whom 
he complimented with the name of a plant, 
as Pliny (e) informs us. As for Hippocrates 
himfelf, I find in him a conyza femina, but 
no other plant called either male or female. 
2. But Theophrafius, who fucceeded Ari- 
frotle in his {chool, in the 114. olympiad, ve- 
ry frequently mentions the fexes of plants. 
Thus gas: de ries, fays he, % TOV Guowyivar, TH 
wey avdew, ra dev, So. §* But it is faid, that 
‘“‘ of plants of the fame kind, fome flower, 
‘* others 
(e) lib. 25. ¢. 6. 
