I iz OF VEGETABLE ANIMATION. SECT. XIII. 5. 



fifteen degrees, the purple flyle is half an inch high, 

 and in fome flowers is now applied to the itamen 

 on the right hand, and in others to that of the 

 left ; and will, I fuppofe, change place to-morrow 

 in thofe, where the anthers have not yet effufed 

 their powder. 



I afk, by what means are the anthers in many 

 flowers, and fligmas in other flowers, directed to 

 find their paramours? How do either of them 

 know, that the other exifts in their vicinity ? Is 

 this curious kind of ftorge produced by mechanic 

 attraction, or by the fenfation of love ? The latter 

 opinion is fupported by the ftrongeft analogy, be-? 

 caufe a reproduction of the fpecies is the confe- 

 quence ; and then another organ of fenfe muft be 

 wanted to direct thefe vegetable amourettes to find 

 each other, one probably analogous to our fenfe of 

 fmell, which in the animal world directs the new- 

 born infant to its fource of nourifhment, and they 

 may thus poffefs a faculty of perceiving as well as 

 '\ of producing odours. 



Thus, befides a kind of tafte at the extremities 

 of their roots, fimilar to that of the extremities of 

 our lacteal veffels, for the purpofe of felecling their 

 proper food : and befides different kinds of irrita- 

 bility refiding in the various glands, which fepa- 

 rate honey, wax, reiin, and other juices from their 

 blood; vegetable life feems to pofiefs an organ of 

 fenfe to diftinguifh the variations of heat, another 

 to diftinguifh the varying degrees of moifture, 

 another of light, another of touch, and probably 

 another analogous to our fenfe of fmell. To thefe 

 muft be added the indubitable evidence of their 

 pafiion of love, and I think we may truly conclude, 

 that they are furnifhed with a common fenforium 

 belonging to each bud, and that they muft occafion- 

 repeat thofe perceptions either in their dreams 



or 



