CHAP. IV. 



Of the Sexual System of Plants. 

 !. 



OBODY at present doubts but that plants 

 propagate themselves, as animals do, by means of or* 

 gans, some male and other females ; that in a great 

 many plants these two kinds of organs are found 

 united, which plants are then among naturalists dis- 

 tinguished by the name of Hermaphrodites ; and that 

 in other plants the two sexes are so separated, that the 

 male are on one stem and the female on another. 

 This system is founded, first, on the analogy there 

 is between the eggs of animals, and the seed of plants, 

 both serving equally to the same end, that of propa- 

 gating a similar race, secondly, on the remarks that 

 have been made, that when the seed of the female 

 plant is not impregnated with the prolific powder 

 of the male, it bears no fruit ; insomuch that as 

 often as the communication between the sexual parts 

 of plants has been intercepted, they have always 

 proved barren. The authors of this system, after 

 exactly anatomizing all the parts of the plant, assign 

 to each a name, founded on its use and analogy to 

 the parts of an animal. Thus as to the male organs, the 

 filaments are the spermatic vessels, their antheres or 

 tops, the testicles, and as to the female, the style an- 

 swers to the vagina, the germ to the ovary, and the 

 pericarpium, or fecundated ovary, to the womb. 



2. Linnaeus has the honour of having compleated 

 this system, by reducing all trees and plants to par- 

 ticular classes, distinguished by the number of their 

 stamiua, or male organs. Zaluzianski seems to have 



