226 ESSAYS ann OBSERVATIONS 
fervedly much commended Carolus Linnaeus, 
be fairly ftated. 
PBC. T dh. 
16. Tue ftate of the controverfy is briefly 
this; Whether the influence of the duft of 
the apices, is abfolutely neceflary to the foe- 
cundity of the feeds, or not: or, Whether 
good and fertile feeds can be produced, when 
the duft of the apices has no accefs to the fylz 
or fligmata of the plants that carry them. 
Now, there being feveral fpecies of vege- 
tables, which bear flowers on one plant, and 
feeds on another, as /pinacia, mercurtalis, 
cannibis, &c.; 1 know no way, to determine 
the queftion fo certainly, as by training up 
one or more of thefe feed-bearing plants, 
at a fufficient diftance from fuch as carry the 
flowers, and obferving the confequence : 
for, 
17. Ir a feed-bearing or female /pinacia, 
mercurialis, or cannabis, flanding at a di- 
{tance from any of the flowering or male 
plants, can produce fertile feeds ; then the in- 
fluence of their duft is not neceffary to the 
fertility of thefe feeds: but, ‘* foemellam fpi- 
‘ naciae, mercurialis, cannabis, abfque vici- 
nl 
