SECT. IV. OBJECTIONS. 343 



sexual organs, which if not necessary in some cases are 

 not necessary in any. Plants of the class Cryptogamia 

 are, as their name imports, destitute of conspicuous 

 flowers, and hence they have been regarded by many 

 botanists as being destitute of flowers altogether ; as 

 may be seen from the title by which they are cha- 

 racterized in the method of Tournefort and others : 

 but it is now very well known that plants may pos- 

 sess all that is necessary to constitute a flower, 

 without being furnished with a gaudy and conspi- 

 cuous corolla. 



If the stamens and pistils are but present under 

 whatever shape, they constitute to all intents and pur- 

 poses an effective flower, because they are by them- 

 selves capable of producing perfect seed ; as in the 

 case of Hippuris, Salicornia, and Lemna, which are 

 indeed destitute of petals, but are furnished with 

 stamens and pistils that produce seeds. But in plants 

 that are strictly cryptogamous many botanists have 

 denied the existence of stamens and pistils under any 

 form whatever, regarding it as absurd even to suppose 

 their existence ; and either contending that they are 

 propagated without seeds, or inferring that seeds 

 may be formed without the intervention of sexual 

 organs, which if not necessary to the reproduction 

 of what are called cryptogamous plants are not ne- 

 cessary to the reproduction of any, and consequently 

 do not exist. But a contrary inference would have 

 been the more logical, and might have been de 

 duced thus : The organs of fructification have been 



