170 Natural History. [Chap. IIL 



France, GeolTroy in 1711, and Vaillant in 1718, 

 declared themselves in favour of Grew's opinion; 

 while Tournefort and his friends opposed it vv^ith 

 equal v/cirmth*. In Great Britain, Blair, Bradley, 

 Fairchild, and Miller, also appeared on the side of 

 Grew's doctrine; but Alston, and some others, 

 long retained their hostility against it with una- 

 bating zeal. 



Such was the state of opinion with regard to this 

 doctrine, when Linna3us adopted, unfolded, and 

 made a splendid application of it to botanical sci- 

 ence. And although we cannot ascribe to him the 



ance; and even if he had, his friends contended, that it would 

 have detracted httle from his merit, that another had dighthj sug- 

 gested a plan which he so abli/ executed, — See Stoever's Life of 

 Linmvus, translated by Trapp, 4to, 1794. — Professor Barton lately 

 informed me, that he had seen a copy of Burkhard's publication, in 

 the Loganian Library, at Philadelphia, and tliat he considered 

 the sexual doctrine, to have been very distinctly suggested by the 

 author as the foundation of botanical arrangement. 



* It is remarkable that the beautiful Latin Poem of M. de la 

 Croix, entitled Connubia Florum, of which the sexual doctrine 

 fi^rms the foundation, was published as early as 1/27. Some no- 

 tice will be taken of this performance hereafter. 



It is also worthy of notice, that James Logan, esq., a learned 

 and ingenious gentleman of Philadelphia, who was afterwards 

 president of the council, and chief justice of Pennsylvania, in- 

 stituted a set of experiments on maize, with a particular view to 

 the investigation of the sexual doctrine. An account of these ex- 

 periments was first communicated in a letter to Peter Collinson, 

 F.Il.S,, in 1735, and printed in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. 

 .^cxxvi. This r.ccount was afterwards enlarged, and published in 

 Latin, at Leydcn, in 173(), under the title oi Experimenta ct Me- 

 htcmata de Pluntarum Generatione ; and republished with an 

 EugliMi translation, by Dr. Fothergill, in 8vb, 1747.- These ex- 

 jjcriments were considered and appealed to as among the most de- 

 cisive in establishing the doctrine they were intended lo illustrate 

 and ccnfirm. — Vultcncfs Sketches, kc. vol. ii, p. '27S. 



