218 ESSAYS anon OBSERVATIONS 
9 
* plantarum expofuit :” as the fame profeffor 
Heifter (x) teftifies. 
13. In 1711, Mr Geoffroy prefented the 
Royal Academy at Paris, with ‘ obfervati- 
“ons on the ftructure and ufe of the princi- 
‘« pal parts of flowers ;” wherein he attempts 
to prove, that the duft of the apices really 
impregnates the feed. And after advancing 
almoft all that had been faid on this fubje@ 
by Grew, Ray, Camerartus, Morland, without 
mentioning them; he afferts, 10, That, the 
germ is never to be feen in the feed till the 
apices fhed their duft. And, 24s, That, if 
the ffamina be cut out before the apices open, 
the feed will either not ripen, or be barren 
if it ripens: in proof whereof he gives two 
experiments that he made, one on the mays, 
by cutting off all the famina before the apices 
opened; and the other on the mercui tahs, 
by training up feparately fome of the feed- 
bearing plants by themfelves. ‘The confe- 
quence was, fome of the ears of the mays 
aborted altogether ; othersripened a few feeds ; 
as did alfo the mercurzalis plants : both which 
feemed to be foecund. ‘ Perhaps, fays he, 
«the duft of the apices, brought from fome ~ 
« other > 
Pd] 
(x) Pref. p, 70- 
