336 SEXUALITY OF VEGETABLES. CHAP. VI. 



against the sexes all the weight he could, he now 

 directed his attention to the class Dicecia, selecting 

 as the subject of experiment some plants of the 

 Cannabis sativa and Sp'macia oleracia, from which 

 he obtained also results equally favourable to his 

 views. For after taking every precaution to secure 

 the female plants from the access of pollen, as in the 

 above example I suppose, seeds were still procured 

 that germinated when sown. 



From the above experiments, which appear in- 

 deed to have been made with great accuracy, Spal- 

 lanzani seems inclined to conclude that the pollen is 

 not in any case essential to fecundation ; and rails 

 much against the Linnaeans for drawing general 

 conclusions from particular premises, insisting that 

 they should never go beyond the extent of their 

 own experiments. But if the philosopher is not 

 allowed to infer a general conclusion from a fair and 

 legitimate induction of particulars, then our know- 

 ledge of the works of nature must remain very 

 limited indeed, and a great many of Spallanzani's 

 conclusions would not be what they are ; for although 

 he utterly disclaims all such procedure in principle, 

 as being wholly illogical, yet he is by no means 

 ashamed to resort to it in practice. And yet after 

 all the parade of argument and experiment which 

 he produces, the doctrine of the sexes of plants has 

 suffered but little from his attack ; for, in spite of his 

 most desperate efforts, still he is obliged to admit it 

 in part, that is in the case of hermaphrodite plants, 



