GENERATION. SECT. XXXIX. *. 



ctimftance ; and that is, that they exaftly referable 

 their parents, as is obfeivable in grafting fruit-trees, 

 and in propagating flower-roots ; whereas the femi- 

 nal offspring of plants, being fupplied with nutri- 

 ment by the mother, is liable to perpetual variation. 

 Thus alfo in the vegetable clafs dioicia, where the 

 male flowers are produced on one tree, and the fe- 

 male ones on another, the buds of the male trees 

 uniformly produce either male flowers, or other 

 buds fimilar to themfelve^ ; and the buds of the fe- 

 male trees produce either female flowers, or other 

 buds fimilar to themfelves ; whereas the feeds of 

 thefe trees produce either male or female plants. 

 From this analogy of the production of vegetable 

 buds without a mother, I contend that the mother 

 <foes not contribute to the formation of the living 

 ens in animal generation, but is neceflary only for 

 fupplying its nutriment and oxygenation. 



There is another vegetable fadt publifhed by M. 

 Koelreuter, which he calls " a complete metamor- 

 phofis of one natural fpecies of plants into ano- 

 ther/* which (hews, that in feeds as well as in buds, 

 the embryon proceeds from the male parent, though 

 the form of the fubfequent mature plant is in part 

 dependant on the female. M. Koelreuter impreg- 

 nated a ftigma of the nicotiana ruftica with the fa- 

 rina of the nicotiana paniculata, and obtained pro- 

 lific feeds from it. With the plants which fpiung 

 from thefe feeds, he repeated the experiment, im- 

 pregnating them with the farina of the nicotiana 

 paniculata. As the mule plants which he thus pro- 

 duced were prolific, he continued to impregnate 

 them for many generations with the farina of the 

 nicotiana paniculata, and they became more and more 

 like the male parent, till he at length obtained fix 

 plants in every refpedt perfectly fimilar to the nico- 

 tiana paniculata , and iij no refpeft refembling their 



female 



