VEGETABLE OKGANOGKAPHY. 



BOOK III. 



OF THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS, OR THE PARTS 

 ESSENTIAL TO REPRODUCTION. 



INTRODUCTION. 



As soon as an organized being, and particularly a 

 plant, or a part of one, commences its visible existence, 

 it only presents to us a development of organs; whence 

 it has been concluded sometimes as a reality, at others 

 as a figurative expression, that all these beings proceed 

 from a germ. This name of Germ has been given to a 

 body imperceptible to our senses, which is supposed to 

 exist in organized bodies, and to be or to contain in 

 miniature the body, or the part of one, which proceeds 

 from it. The germs may be considered either as being 

 formed by the organ, or by the being upon which they 

 are developed, or by that which is transmitted to it at 

 the period of fecundation ; and in this case, the force 

 which causes this creation of germs, is termed the Plastic 

 Force : or, it is supposed that the origin of these germs 

 dates from the origin itself of organized beings, that they 

 were all inserted into one another ; so that all the germs 



VOL. II. B 



