SECT. I- ANTICIPATION OF THE ANCIENTS. 301 



of flowers.* And to complete the mystery in 

 which the doctrine was yet involved, the male plant 

 is, in some cases, said to bear fruit as well as the 

 female.-^ From all which it follows that the doc- 

 trine of vegetable sexuality was but very imper- 

 fectly understood in the time of Theophrastus. 



After a long blank in the annals of phytological Pliny, Di- 

 research, the next traces of inquiry relative to the andGalen. 

 sexuality of vegetables, are such as occur in the 

 works of Pliny, Dioscorides, and Galen, who also 

 adopted the division by which plants were then dis- 

 tributed into male and female ; but chiefly upon 

 the erroneous principle of habit or aspect, and 

 without any reference to a distinction absolutely 

 sexual ; the fertile plant being sometimes denomi- 

 nated the male, and the barren plant the female, 

 as in the example of male and female mercury, in 

 which the true notion of vegetable sexuality was 

 altogether reversed. Pliny seems, however, to 

 admit the distinction of sex in all plants whatever, 

 and quotes the cas/s of the Palm-tree as exhibiting 

 the most striking example.^ 



* Tot$ de <pi\upot$, YI /wV appet eVTiv YI SE S^eia ; TO psv 5s rrjf 

 oippevos |yXov euudeFTEpov ra: Trig riteixs t xa-i jxev aKtipTfo^ KCX.I 

 YI dt $^ia xoii av$o$ %(, xou KotpTrov. TIepi tyuruv i 



J- Aia^opat TrAcioy; sfcny 9 YI ftlv mwi\ 'zzafiv y haipoutriv TO 

 TO appsy, v TO /AEV xapTrfyopov, TO ds axxpTtov em TIVUV; sv vi$ 5k oip<pu 

 xapTPO^opa, TO SijAy xa\>.i#ap7rorepov. Ibid. 



J Arboribus imo potius omnibus quse terra gignit herbisque 

 etiain utrumque sexum esse diligentissimi naturx tradunt. Lib. 

 ?iii. p. 4. 



