34O SEXUALITY OF VEGETABLES. CHAP. VI. 



employing such arguments wherever it suits his 

 purpose, in all cases excepting that of sex. Witness 

 his very first chapter on the analogies between the 

 plant and animal ; in which he exhibits, no doubt, 

 an example of the most meritorious self-denial in 

 forbearing to pursue the analogy throughout the se- 

 veral sexual organs, to which he certainly had a 

 strong temptation, though he affects to regard the 

 doctrine as an absurdity. 



But if plants, like animals, are found to produce 

 a new individual arising from a germe, seed, or egg, 

 why should it be thought strange if they are fur- 

 nished with analogous organs of generation ? The 

 alleged impregnation, says Mr. Smellie, is impossi- 

 ble : because if the doctrine were even true, the seed 

 could be impregnated by the pollen only in a gela- 

 tinous state ; and yet in most hermaphrodites, it has 

 acquired considerable solidity before the pollen is 

 shed. But this assumption, which is founded on 

 the already refuted arguments of Pontedera, is good 

 for nothing ; because Mr. Smellie cannot tell when 

 impregnation is and is not practicable merely from 

 the state of the seed ; and because it is not necessary 

 that a seed should be impregnated by the pollen of 

 its own flower. The experiment of the Leipsic and 

 Berlin Palms is regarded as defective, because it was 

 not continued for several successive years with and 

 without pollen ; and because it is possible it might 

 have produced fertile seeds, in the year of the ex- 

 periment at any rate. The futility of this objection 



