SECT. III. INDUCTION OF PARTICULAR PROOFS. 311 



of Martinique there was then growing near the 

 monastery of the order to which he belonged, a 

 female Date-tree, which bore fruit though single, 

 there being no other tree of the same species within 

 two leagues of it ; but he adds that the stones of the 

 Dates it produced did not germinate : it is plain, 

 therefore, that the fruit was not perfect, though it 

 might have been externally complete. A female 

 plant of the Cycas revoluta, in the possession of the 

 Bishop of Winchester, produced also fruit though 

 single ; but the drupe, which was externally and 

 apparently complete, was found when dissected by 

 Sir J. E. Smith to be internally very defective : for in 

 place of the embryo, the most important part of the 

 whole, all that could be discovered was only a 

 minute cavity, which defect Sir J. E. Smith rightly 

 attributes to the want of the vicinity of a plant fur- 

 nished with male flowers ; which he adds was, per- 

 haps, not to be found nearer than Japan. * 



The fruit then is perfected by means of some 

 substance conveyed from the barren to the fertile 

 flower, and capable, as it appears, of being trans- 

 mitted through the medium of the atmosphere, if 

 the respective plants are situated in the vicinity of 

 each other. 



But in the case of the Fig-tree vicinity is not 

 even enough, the structure of the fruit being such as 

 to require a peculiar mode of transmission ; for the 

 * Trans. Lin. Soc. vol. vi. 



