VOL. XXXIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. fl/ 



the part immediately under the ossification was like firm flesh, and this flesh 

 was softer and softer the nearer to its centre. 



He thinks it unnecessary to remark, that the woman never had but 1 child, 

 of which she was delivered about 1^ years before she died. 



Her chief complaints, for some years, were a short cough, great difficulty in 

 breathing, frequent uneasiness in making water, or in going to stool, and a 

 constant weight, or bearing down, on the parts of generation. 



But the immediate cause of her death was an asthma; for she had only one 

 lobe of the lungs left that was perfectly sound ; the rest adhered firmly to the 

 pleura, were very much contracted, and in some places scirrhous. i 



Experiments concerning the Impregnation of the Seeds of Plants. By James 



Logan, Esq. N° 440, p. iQ2. 



As the notion of a male seed, or the farina foecundans, in vegetables, is now 

 very common, Mr. Logan only mentions such observations concerning it, as 

 may have some tendency to that subject. And first it appears, from Miller's 

 dictionary, that M. GeofFroy, from the experiments he made on maize, was 

 of opinion, that seeds may grow up to their full size, and appear perfect to the 

 eye, without being impregnated by the farina, which possibly may in some cases 

 be true ; for there is no end of varieties in nature. But in the subject he has 

 mentioned Mr. L. believes it is otherwise, and that Mr. G. applied not all the 

 care that was requisite in the management. 



In the spring Mr. Logan resolved to make some experiments on the maize, 

 or Indian corn. In each corner of his garden, he planted a hill of that corn, 

 and watched the plants when they grew up to a proper height, and were push- 

 ing out both the tassels above, and ears below ; from one of those hills, he cut 

 off the whole tassels, on others he carefully opened the ends of the ears, and 

 from some of them cut or pinched off all the silken filaments ; from others he 

 took about half, from others ^ and ^, &c. with some variety, noting the heads, 

 and the quantity taken from each : other heads again he tied up at their ends, 

 just before the silk was putting out, with fine muslin, but the fuzziest or most 

 nappy he could find, to prevent the passage of the farina; but which would 

 obstruct neither sun, air nor rain. He fastened it also so very loosely, as not 

 to give the least check to vegetation. 



The consequence of all which was this ; that of the 5 or 6 ears on the first 

 hill, from which he had taken all the tassels, from whence proceeds the farina, 

 there was only one that had so much as a single grain in it, and that in about 

 480 cells, had but about 20 or 21 grains ; the heads, or ears, as they stood on 



VOL. VIII. I 



