1>een the -first among the moderns, who clearly dis- 

 tinguished from one another the male, the female, 

 and the hermaphroditical plants. About a hundred 

 years after him. Sir Samuel Millington and Dr. 

 Grew communicated to the Royal Society of London, 

 their observations on the impregnating dust of the 

 stamina. Camerarius, towards the end of the last 

 century, observed, that upon plucking off the sta- 

 mina of some male plants, such as the. mulberry-tree 

 or the maize, the buds that ought to have produced 

 fruit, came not to maturity. Malpighi and Vail Ian. t 

 have also carefully considered this fecundating dust ; 

 the latter of whom seems to have been the first 

 eye-witness of this secret of nature. Many authors 

 afterwards applied themselves to improve this system. 



3. We are now to examine whether the ancients 

 knew any thing of this, or whether they only speak 

 of it in a vague and indecisive manner. I agree,that 

 they do not give so exact an account of the anatomy 

 of every part of the flower of a plant as the moderns 

 do ; at least, no si oh work of 'heirs hath reached our 

 times. They are even sometimes so far mistaken, as 

 to apply some of the parts to purposes they do not 

 serve. But in thi they are more excusable than some 

 of our ablest mo nis, who have fallen into great 

 errors on this sub; ct, notwit standing all the instruc- 

 tions, experiment and obset /ations of their cotem- 

 poraries. The .jlest botanist of his age, Mr. de 

 Tournefort, who could not be ignorant of what had 

 been advanced by Millington, Grew, Malpighi, and 

 Camerarius, yet maintains that the stamina of flowers 

 serve only to secrete or void the less useful parts of the 

 nutritive juices, and arc only the excretory vessels 

 belonging to the calix of the flower. 



4. Having made this concession, I may with the 

 more safety affirm, that, this one circumstance ex- 

 cepted of which 1 have here made mention, the an- 

 cients perfectly understood the sexual difference in 



