258 ESSAYS AND OBSERVATIONS 



yet I may fay, that I believe they are 

 the firfl that ever faw it, and that this is 

 not enough to lemove Camerarius's 

 doubt, nor to weaken the argument 

 drawn from the above experiments, un- 

 ]efs they can fay, that the feed-bearing 

 hemp carries always one or more fuch 

 ftaminiferous flowers j or that the can- 

 nabis of Camerarius, and the other a- 

 bove mentioned, had really fuch flowers 

 in it, which they cannot aflert. For my 

 part, I can declare that, though I fearch- 

 ed very carefully for the feed of the 

 hemp-plant *, I could fee nothing like 

 llamina on it ; neither on the feed-bear- 

 ing plants of the fpinacia, mercurialis, 

 bryonia, either before or fince I read Mr 

 Wahlbom's Sponfalia Plantarum. 



20. Hence I think the pofition of that 

 learned botanift Julius Pontedera, viz. 

 *' Apicum liquorem embryonis foecundar 

 " tioni in omnibus plantis non efle ne- 

 ** ceflarium," to be a demonftrable truth, 

 which neither authorities nor arguments 



can 



• Exp. a. 



