SECT. XXXIX. 2. GENERATION. 553 



female parent the nicotiana ruftica. Blumenbach on 

 Generation. 



3. It is probable that the infects, which are faid 

 to require but one impregnation for fix generations, 

 ar. the aphis (fee Amenit. Academ.) produce their 

 progeny in the manner above dtfcribed, that is, 

 without a mother, and not without a father ; and 

 thus experience a lucina fine concubitu. Thofe who 

 have atten ed to the habits of the polypus, which 

 is found in the ftagnant water of our ditches in 

 July, affirm, that the young ones branch out from 

 the ficle of the parent like the buds of trees, and 

 after a time feparate themfelves from them. This 

 is fo analogous to the manner in which the buds of 

 trees appear to be produced, that thefe polypi maybe 

 confitiered as all male animals, producing embryons, 

 which require no mother to fupply them with a nidus, 

 or with nutriment, and oxygenation. 



This lateral or lineal generation of plants, not 

 only obtains in the buds of trees, which continue 

 to adhere to them, but is beautifully feen in the 

 wires of knot-grafs, polygonum aviculare, and in 

 thofe of ftraw berries, fragaria vefca. In thefe an 

 elongated creeping bud is protruded, and, where it 

 touches the ground, takes root, and produces a new 

 plant derived from its father, from which it acquires 

 both nutriment and oxygenation; and in confe- 

 quence needs no maternal apparatus for thefe pur- 

 pofes. In viviparous flowers, as thofe of allium 

 magicum, and polygonum viviparum, the anthers 

 and the ftigmas become effete and perifh ; and the 

 lateral or paternal offspring fucceeds inftead of feeds, 

 which adhere till they are fufficiently mature, and 

 then fall upon the ground, and take root like other 

 bulbs. 



The lateral production of plants by wires, while 

 each new plant is thus chained to its parent, and 

 continues to put forth another and another, as the. 



wire 



