SECT. III. INDUCTION OF PARTICULAR PROOFS* 321 



elevates the flowers to the surface of the water, and 

 leaves them to expand in the open air. The barren 

 flowers are produced in great numbers upon short 

 upright stalks issuing from a different root, from 

 which they detach themselves about the time of 

 the expansion of the female blossom, mounting up 

 like little air bubbles, and suddenly expanding 

 when they reach the surface, where they float about 

 in great numbers among the female blossoms, and 

 often cling to them in clusters so as to cover them 

 entirely ; thus bringing the stamens and pistils into 

 immediate contact, and giving the anthers an op 

 portunity of discharging their pollen immediately 

 over the stigma. When this operation has been 

 performed, the now uncoiled stalk of the female 

 plant begins again to resume its original and spiral 

 form, and gradually sinks down as it gradually rose, ' 

 to ripen its fruit at the bottom of the water. 



SUBSECTION II. 



Experiments. The above are the proofs of the 

 sexuality of vegetables, arising from the observation 

 of the natural phenomena exhibited in the economy 

 of flowers. It remains now to exhibit such proofs 

 as arise from experiment. 



Experiment !.< If the anthers of an herma-Thean- 

 phrodite flower, or the stameniferous flowers of a{|^^ 

 monoecious plant, are cut off before they shed their P hrod i tes 



' cut off, 



pollen, and care taken to prevent the access of the 



VOL. II. Y 



