26S THE PHILOSOPHY 



« feeds, or, in other words, of perpetuating the fpecies. Tliat 

 ' I might learn whether the feeds of my three gourds enjoy- 



< ed this prerogative, caufed fome of them to be planted in 

 « the fame place in May 1778 ; and, when they were grown 

 f to fome fize, they were, as in the foregoing experiment, 



* carefully ftripped of all their male flowers, one female 



* flower only being left on each individual. Thefe flowers 



* were furnilhed with fmall gourds, which grew ripe towards 



< the beginning of autumn, and the feeds they produced gre\ir 



< juft as well as the former */ 



With regard to dioicous plants, or thofe which produce 

 male flowers on one individual and femalie flowers on another, 

 they are by far the moil unexceptionable fubje£ls for deter-' 

 mining the exiftence or non-exiftence of fexes in plants. 

 Accordingly, Bonnet, Fourgeroux, and Spalanzani, &c. about 

 the year 1770, placed female plants of this defcription in 

 iituations fo flrictly guarded againfl: the poflibility of foecun- 

 datingduft being conveyed to the females either by the air 

 or by infe£ls, that the fuppofltion of male influence baflies 

 all the powers of imagination. Thefe females, however, 

 uniformly produced ripe feeds *, and thefe feeds were as pro- 

 lific as if they had been furrounded with males. 



From the fa6ts and arguments above related, and many 

 others which might be adduced, it appears, that this beauti- 

 ful theory, derived from a mifliaken analogy, has no founda- 

 tion in Nature. I would not have dwelt fo long on this fub- 

 je£V, if I had not flncerely wifhed that the minds of men 

 might be emancipated from the fetters of a fyfl:em which has 

 to.o long received the almofl univerfal aflent of the literary 

 world ; and that the oeconomy of the vegetable kingdom 

 inay again be open to impartial inquiries. 

 * Spalanzani'sDifTcrtatlons, vol. %. p,278. 



