SECT. III. INDUCTION OF PARTICULAR PROOFS. 313 



facilitates the agency of the insect by presenting it 

 to the Fig at the time proper for impregnation ; and 

 the service he thus performs is called Caprification, 



Obs. 3. If the stamens or pistils are obliterated 

 by cultivation, or injured by rain or frost, or by the 

 operation of any other natural cause, the process of im- 

 pregnation is interrupted or prevented, and the fruit 

 deteriorated or diminished in quantity or quality. 



Sometimes they are wholly obliterated by means From in- 

 of cultivation, as in the case of double flowers ; Ul^onctothe 

 which the stamens degenerate into petals, and the J3 ens OI 

 pistil not unfrequently into a leaf: but in this case 

 it is well known that no flower produces perfect 

 seed. Sometimes they are injured by accidents 

 arising from weather, and even in such vegetables as 

 are the most serviceable for the food of man, parti- 

 cularly in crops of grain ; but some sorts of grain 

 are much more liable to be injured by such acci- 

 dents than others : Crops of rye, for example, are 

 much more liable to be injured by heavy and con- 

 tinued rains than crops of Barley, because the 

 anthers are better sheltered by the husks of the 

 latter than of the former. But shrubs and trees are 

 affected in the same manner as the plants now men- 

 tioned. It was observed by Linnaeus that the 

 Juniper produces few or no berries in Sweden if the 

 flowering season is wet ; and that the Cherry-tree is 

 much less liable to come short of its annual crop 

 than the Pear-tree, because in the latter the blos- 

 soms are unfolded and the stamens and pistils 



2 



