ON BREEDING AND RAISING VEGETABLES. 13 



fully displayed, by guarding in a different and 

 more certain manner against casual obstruction, 

 as well as the inability of a plant to bring toge- 

 ther the necessary parts formed for the propaga- 

 tion of its species. Every flower is furnished 

 with a receptacle, called the nectarium, wherein 

 is secreted, an odoriferous and very sweet liquid, 

 which attracts, and serves for the food of bees, 

 and other insects ; and these vessels are always 

 placed below the apices and the pistilium, so that 

 the insects in their endeavours to obtain their 

 tiectar, must pass over, and between, the apices, 

 and also the pistilium ; and the farina or dust 

 sticking about them, is thus conveyed to the 

 mouth of the pistilium, and the process of 

 impregnation performed ; without this assist- 

 ance, there are some plants which could scarcely 

 ever be brought together, or impregnated : for 

 instance, the cucumber and the melon, and all 

 others of this tribe of plants, which have distinct 

 male and female blossoms, when growing in si- 

 tuations where the wind has no power to dis- 

 perse the farina. 



As an elucidation of this, I may mention the 

 progress and result of the following experiment : 

 being desirous to obtain seed from a peculiar 

 head of broccoli, and well aware that the inter- 

 course of bees would occasion the seed to be 



