308 SEXUALITY OF VEGETABLES. CHAP. VI. 



Royal Garden at Paris in 3717, supports the 

 doctrine of the sexes of vegetables by new accessions 

 of experiment, and throws additional elucidation 

 both on the structure of the pollen and manner of 

 its explosion ; which he represents indeed in terms 

 too glowing for the style of sober narrative, but by 

 which he appears according to the remarks of a co- 

 temporary author, to have been the first eye-witness 

 of that secret operation of nature the sport that 

 passes between the flowers of plants in the mys- 

 terious process of vegetable generation. 



But the doctrine of the sexes of vegetables, which 

 was thus daily acquiring new accessions of proof, 

 was destined to receive its last degree of elucidation 

 Of Lin- from the pen of Linnaeus. This great and illustrious 

 botanist, reviewing with his usual sagacity the evi- 

 dence on which the doctrine rested, and perceiving 

 that it was supported by a multiplicy of the most 

 incontrovertible facts, resolved to devote his labours 

 peculiarly to the investigation of the subject, and 

 to prosecute his inquiries throughout the whole 

 extent of the vegetable kingdom ; which great and 

 arduous enterprize he not only undertook but ac- 

 complished with a success equal to the unexampled 

 industry with which he pursued it. So that by 

 collecting into one body all the evidence of former 

 discovery or experiment, and by adding much that 

 was original of his own, he found himself at length 

 authorized to draw the important conclusion that 



