FRUCTIFICATION OF FLOWERS. 381 



from the anthers is probably very trifling, it being 

 so readily and abundantly obtainable from honey. 

 " Secondly, That for any depredations committed 

 on the farina, they amply compensate, by their 

 inadvertent yet providential conveyance of it, on 

 their limbs and corslets, to the female organs of 

 monoecious or dioecious plants ; whose impregna- 

 tion must otherwise have depended on the un- 

 certain winds. This is exemplified in the prac- 

 tice of our gardeners, who in early spring, before 

 they dare expose their hotbeds to the open air, 

 and consequently to the access of insects, insure 

 the fertility of the cucumbers and melons, by 

 shaking a male blossom over each female flower. 

 For the same purpose, and with the same success, 

 a gentleman in Shropshire substitutes a male 

 blossom, in place of the female one, at the top of 

 his embryo cucumber, which instantly adheres, 

 and falls off in due time. To the same kind in- 

 trusion of insects we owe the numberless new 

 sorts of esculents and endless varieties of flowers 

 in the parterre : 



' Where Beauty plays 

 Her idle freaks ; from family diffus'd 

 To family, as flies the father dust 

 The varied colours run.' THOMSON. 



" Thirdly, That in a great many instances, the 

 honey-cups are completely beyond the reach of 

 the fructifying organs, and cannot possibly be 



