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But what do we mean by seeds and eggs ? These m 

 the common sense of the words, are certain mixed bo. 

 dies, that immediately furnish those productions. 

 They are said to contain not only the pre-existent 

 germ, but the fit nidus also and aliment to be assimi- 

 lated in proper circumstances. They are therefore 

 heterogeneous bodies, that coalesce in a known time ; 

 and their principles are so far from being united at 

 the creation, that they sensibly come together from 

 distant places, in all hermaphrodite plants, and from, 

 different individuals in all those species, where the 

 male and female are distinct. 



But it is in vain for us to lay down any certain 

 rule, and to say to nature, u this is thy scheme ; from 

 this thou shalt not deviate." If she makes it a law 

 in many species, that every individual requires the 

 co-operation of a male and female parent ; she has, 

 at the same time, her hermaphrodites, both in plants 

 and animals. And if in some hermaphrodites, the 

 sexes are so distinct, that she seems not to deviate far 

 from her primitive law ; she will, in another instance, 

 tbat of the pucerons, act either with or without the 

 co-operation of a male. Again : in some species, 

 the female may be so impregnated, that the impreg- 

 nation shall diffuse itself to five or six generations. 

 Yet again : in many kinds of polypes, generation pro. 

 ceeds without male or female, egg or seed. And far. 

 ther still ; there are some species of polypes, where a 

 whole family, (after branching out by real vegetation, 

 as far as nature designs) jointly concur to furnish 

 one egg, as the source of a future progeny. If at last 

 you resolve to stand by this, that at least every indi- 

 vidual proceeds from a parent like itself ; even this is 

 overthrown by late experiments. For we have now 

 a cloud of instances, of a class of beings hitherto un- 

 known, wherein animals grow upon, are produced by, 

 and in the strictest sense of the word, brought forth 

 from plants. Then, 'by a strange vicissitude, they be* 

 come plants of another kind. These again become 



