3i<^ ESSAYS AND OBSERVATIONS 



tious, and unfit for nourifliing the feed *• 

 I own indeed, that this opinion does not 

 well Agree with that of Caefalpinus ; it 

 being more than probable that the duft 

 of the apices, in barren as well as fertile 

 flowers, is of the fame nature, and de- 

 figned for the lame ufe. 



59- And, from what has been obferved 

 of the parietaria, ficus, viola, 8cc. yea, 

 and from the general ftrudlure of fertile 

 as well as barren flowers, it is alfo more 

 than probable, that this dull is rather 

 excrementitious and noxious, than ufeful 

 to the nourifliment or foecundity of the 

 feed. Nor is this inconfiftent with its 

 influence on the produdlion of the num- 

 berlefs varieties of new flowers, which 

 yearly adorn the gardens of the curious : 

 If the opinion, which has for fome time 



prevailed, 



* *« Petala (fays Tournefort) allmentum a pediculo 

 «* acceptura, vilceris inftar, perficiunt, et fruflui nafcenti 

 •' fuppeditant : ineptis humoris partibus per ftamina, 

 •• feu vafa excretoria, abeuntibus in apices , feu recepta- 

 *' cula. Dixi iius jam apices, quicquid minus apti con- 

 " tinet alimentusn in fe recipere rerumque valvas a 

 » coDgeftis excremeotis deduci ;" Inft. p. 69. and ^o. 



