172 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1771, 



constant annual flowering in waste places, or in ground that does not appear, or 

 is not known to have been cultivated for the purpose, it may perhaps be 

 reasonably presumed that they are the natural and spontaneous product of such 

 places; for, in this case, I understand natural and spontaneous, according to 

 common acceptation, to be synonymous, and applicable to any seminal produc- 

 tion, however happening, or effected, without the assistance of art, whether from 

 seeds deposited there, or in that soil, at the creation, or from suc;h as are con- 

 veyed by the wind, by birds, or any other casual means. Otherwise, in strictness, 

 there may be no such thing in nature as a spontaneous production; for as to the 

 old doctrine of equivocal generation, I suppose it to be universally exploded; 

 though I do not dispute that the stamina, or first rudiments, have existed, in the 

 parent plants, from the beginning of the things, the vegetative principle being 

 latent, till prepared and at liberty to exert itself. 



And on the first conjecture, a difficulty may arise. It is perhaps not easy to 

 conceive that the fecundity of seeds, once perfected, can be retained inert 

 through man}' ages. Experience seems to show, that there are some kinds of 

 seeds, that at a certain age, or nearly so, either vegetate or perish ; that if kept 

 out of their proper matrix, or in at too great a depth, beyond that time, whatever 

 we do with them afterward, will not grow; and if there be really such (so 

 deposited ab origine) those kinds cannot, even in that sense, and in that case, be 

 said to come up spontaneously. Besides, if the seeds were so deposited in the 

 earth, and in a perfect state, so numerous as they must be; the larger kinds 

 especially could not escape our notice. As to the antediluvian nuts, cones, and 

 stone-fruits, that, we hear, are sometimes found at vast depths within the earth, 

 however they may suit the cabinets of the curious, I fear they are too antique to 

 be prolific. But in the other way, the seeds may be conveyed, from whatever 

 distance, in different years, (for aught we know they are in every year), to the 

 places where we see the plants; and not only thither, but to many places that 

 are not proper to receive and cherish them. 



It is evident, that the oak, ash, and other our most common trees, are not 

 naturally increased in any other way, except such as are productive of suckers at 

 a considerable distance from the stems; and many of these do not generally 

 perfect their seeds: to say nothing of inferior plants, that sometimes, in the 

 phrase of gardening, lay themselves. But those suckers, till parted from the 

 parent trees, and removed from the place, are not often better than underwood, 

 which may be one reason why these kinds do not increase so extensively as the 

 former. And if our forefathers had not industriously raised and increased (if not 

 previously introduced) the most common and most useful trees, perhaps we 

 should not observe them to increase naturally more, or have found them more 

 numerous, than many that we know to be exotic, and yet are as easily increased. 



