VOL. XXin.J PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 69 



catch and detain the farina, as it flies out of its thecae. From hence I suppose, 

 that the rain either washes it, or the wind shakes it down the tube, till it reach 

 the vasculum seminale. 



2. In the caprifolium, or honey suckle, there rises a stylus from the rudi- 

 ments of a berry, into which it is inserted, to the top of the monopetalous 

 flower; from the middle of which flower are sent forth several stamina, that 

 shed their farina out of the cases upon the orifice of the stylus, which in this 

 plant is villous or tufted, on the same account as the former is. 



3. In allium, or common garlic, there arises a tricoccous uterus, or seed 

 vessel, in the centre of which is inserted a short stylus, not reaching so high 

 as the apices, which thus overtopping it, have the opportunity of shedding 

 their globules into its orifice more easily. For which reason I can discern no 

 tuft on this, as on the former, to ensure their entrance, that being provided 

 for by its situation just under them. 



Now, nothing can be more natural than to conclude, that where a fine 

 powder is curiously prepared, carefully reposited, and shed abroad at a peculiar 

 season ; where there is a tube so planted as to be fit to receive it, and such 

 care in disposing this tube, that where it does not lie directly under the cases 

 that shed the powder, it has a particular apparatus at the extremity to insure its 

 entrance; nothing can be more genuinely deduced from any premises, than 

 it may from these, that this powder, or some of it, was designed to enter this 

 tube. If these stamina had been only excretory ducts, as has been hitherto 

 supposed, to separate the grosser parts, and leave the juice designed for the 

 nourishment of the seed the more reserved, what occasion was there to lodge these 

 excrements in such curious repositories ? they woqld have been conveyed any 

 where, rather than where there was so much danger of their dropping into the 

 seed vessel again, as they are here. 



Again, the tube, over the mouth of which they are shed, and into which 

 they enter, leads always directly into the seed vessel. To which we may add, 

 that the tube always begins to die, when these thecae are emptied of their 

 contents ; if they last any longer, it is only while the globules, which enter at 

 their orifice, may be supposed to have finished their passage. Now can we 

 well expect a more convincing proof of these tubes being designed to convey 

 these globules, than that they wither, when there are not more globules to 

 convey. . ' 



If I could now show that the ova, or unimpregnated seed, are always to be 

 observed without this seminal plant, the proof would arise to a demonstration ; 

 but having not been able to discern this, I shall recommend the inquiry to 

 those gentleman who are masters of the best microscopes, and address in using 

 them. Though, in the mean time, I have made some steps towards a proof 



