310 SEXUALITY OF VEGETABLES. CHAP. VI. 



in the spring and its flower in the autumn, so that 

 the former has the appearance of being the cause of 

 the latter; but the truth is that the fruit, which 

 ripens in the spring, is the natural result of the 

 flower of the preceding autumn, and not the cause 

 of the flower of the following autumn : for if the 

 flower is cut off in the autumn, before its expansion, 

 you will have no fruit in the succeeding spring ; 

 and yet if the fruit is cut off any time in the 

 spring, you will still have blossom in the following 

 autumn. 



There exists also another seeming exception in 

 the case of the Pine apple, in which the part that is 

 commonly called the fruit is formed before the flower 

 expands : but when it is recollected that this alleged 

 fruit is merely a fleshy receptacle, and that the seed, 

 the only essential part of the fruit, is not developed 

 till after the expansion of the flower, the seeming 

 exception vanishes. 



From the Obs. 2. The fruit bearing individuals of such 

 tion of species as have their barren and fertile flowers on 

 d iants US distinct plants do not perfect their fruit except where 

 individuals of both sorts are sustained in the vicinity 

 of one another. This observation is confirmed not 

 only by the testimony of the ancients, and their 

 manner of cultivating the Palm and Fig-tree, but 

 also by the additional observations of the moderns. 

 Father Labat, a French ecclesiastic, who had under- 

 taken a voyage to the West Indian islands about 

 the year \*J\ 5, says that when he was in the island 



