- PHYSICAL ann LITERARY. 245 
when the fun is hot; as fome cere, ketmiae 
xyla, lychnis» noGiflora, mirabilis peruvia- 
na, &c. (m) Does not the paffion-flower keep 
open in the night as well as day, until it fhut 
-up for good and all, and that whether it be 
fun-fhine or rain? He adds, “ Secale florens 
‘© antheras filamentis infidentes exferit, quo 
‘tempore, fi pluvia cadit, pollen congloba- 
‘< tur, hincque annonam difficilem auguratur 
‘agricola, nec immerito; grana enim im- 
‘¢ minuuntnr exinde, quod: plerique flofculi 
‘* abortum paffi fint.” ‘That /ecale, triticum, 
many gramina, plantagines, pimpinellae, &c. 
thruft out the apices on pretty long ffamina, 
when in flower, I deny not; but that rain at 
that time caufes fcarcity of any of them, I 
never obferved : and altho’ it were granted, 
_ that this commonly happens, how does it 
_ appear that rain caufes the flo/culi to abort, 
or this abortion caufes fcarcity of fecale ? 
fince, at the fame time, the other plants are 
fufficiently fertile, yea the manner of flower- 
ing in fome of thefe plants, feems to afford an 
argument, not contemptible, againft the fex- 
: ual 
(m) “ Mirabilis eft planta quae tam fpeciofos flores, noéti 
““atrae objicit, et fereno dici fubtrahit.” Lin. H. Cliff. 
P+ 54+ 
