76 OF VEGETABLE SECT. XIII. 5. i. 



their motions being aflbciated with thofe of the irritated part. 

 So the various ftamina of the clafs of fyngenefia have been accuf- 

 tomed to contrad; together in the evening, and thence if you 

 ftimulate one of them with a pin, according to the experiment 

 of M. Colvolo, they all contraft from their acquired aflbciations. 

 Which aifo (hows, that the number of male or female organs 

 exifting in one flower does not deftroy the individuality of it ; 

 any more than the number of paps of a bitch or fow, or vhe 

 double organ of a barn-door cock ; which is further evinced by 

 the anthers and ftigmas of fome hermaphrodite flowers proba- 

 bly receiving their nutriment from the fame honey-gland or 

 nefrary, and having their blood oxygenated by the fame corol, 

 while in the plants of the claffes of monecia and diecia the male 

 and female organs of reprodu&ion belong to different vegetable 

 beings. 



To evince that the collapfing of the fenfitive plant is not ow- 

 ing to any mechanical vibrations propagated along the whole 

 branch, when a fmgle leaf is (truck with the finger, a leaf of it 

 was flit with (harp fciflars, and fome feconds of time paffed be- 

 fore the plant feemed fenfible of the injury ; and then the whole 

 branch collapfed as far as the principal ftem : this experiment 

 was repeated feveral times with the lead poflible impulfe to the 

 plant. 



V. i. For the numerous circumstances in which vegetable 

 buds are analogous to animals, the reader is referred to the ad- 

 ditional notes at the end of the Botanic Garden, Part I. It is 

 there fhewn, that the roots of vegetables refemble the lacteal fyf- 

 tem of animals : the fap-veffels in the early fpring, before their 

 leaves expand, are analogous to the placental veflels of the fce- 

 tus ; that the leaves of land-plants refemble lungs, and thofe of 

 aquatic plants the gills of fifli ; that there are other fyftems of 

 veflels refembling the vena portarum of quadrupeds, or the aor- 

 ta of fifli ; that the digeftive power of vegetables is fimilar to 

 that of animals, converting the fluids, which they abforb, into 

 fugar , that their feeds refemble the eggs of animals, and their 

 buds and bulbs their viviparous offspring. And, laftly, that 

 the anthers and ftigmas are real animals, attached indeed to 

 their parent tree like polypi or coral infects, but capable of fpon- 

 taneous motion ; that they are affected with the pailion of 

 love, and furnifhed with powers of reproducing their fpecies, 

 and are fed with honey like the moths and butterflies, which 

 plunder their nectaries. See Botanic Garden, Part I. add. note 

 XXXIX. 



The male flowers of vallifneria approach (till nearer to appar- 

 ent animality, as they detach themfelves from the parent plant, 



and 



