AGRICULTURE AND PLANTING. 9 



On the Structure of Vegetables. 



2.^ The Style, which is the part that serves to elevate. the stigma from the 

 germen, and which conveys the elastic vapour of the pollen through its cavity in- 

 to the germen, where it fecundates the seeds. 



3. The Stigma, or summit of the pistillum. It is mostly covered with a 

 moisture, or melleous juice, for the purpose of retaining and dissolving the poljen^ 

 which it attracts and receives when it is exploded upon it by the rupturing of 

 the anthera, for the reproduction of vegetable life. ' For though the filaments 

 and style, as well as the corolla and nectary or honey-cup, belong to the sexual 

 organs of vegetables ; yet it is the anthers alone of the stamina, and stigmas alone 

 of the pistilla, which possess the power, and I suppose the passion of reproduction. 



This amatorial attachment between the stigmas and the anthers on the sum- 

 mits of the stamens has attracted the notice of all botanists. In many flowers the 

 anthers or males bend into contact with the stigmas or females, as in kahnia, 

 fritillaria persica, parnassia, cactus and cistus. In the kalmia the ten stamens 

 he round the pistil, like the radii of a wheel, and each anther is concealed in a nich 

 of the corolla, to protect it from cold and moisture; these anthers rise separately 

 from their niches, and approach the stigma of the pistil for a time, and then re- 

 cede to their former situations. In the fritillaria persica the six stamens are of 

 equal lengths, and the anthers lie at a distance from the pistil; of these, three al- 

 ternate ones approach first, and surround the female; and when these decline, the 

 other three approach; and in parnassia the males alternately approach and recede 

 from the female, the coition lasting some days; and lastly in the most beautiful 

 flowers, of cactus grandijlorus, and of cistus labdaniferous, where the males are 

 very numerous, some of them are perpetually bent into contact with the female; 

 and as they recede, others advance. 



In other flowers the females bend into contact with the males, as in nigella, 

 epilobium, spartium, coUinsonia. In nigella, devil in the bush, the females are 

 very tall compared to the males, and bending down over them in a circle, give 



c 



