:256 T H E P H I L O S O P H Y 



■were then in full blow under the bell, the glafs of which was thick, 

 and of a darker green than our common beer-bottles. The light, 

 of courfe, tranfmitted to the plants was lurid and obfcure. They 

 were alfo deprived of a free circulation of air. Under thefe unna- 

 tural circumftances, the plants had a fickly afpedt. The flowers of 

 the red variety, inftead of a vivid red, were almoft perfedlly white. 

 Here we have nearly an equal change made upon the fame plant, 

 without the poffibility of its being effeded by the intercourfe of 

 fexes. If plants are thus deprived of proper light and air, it cannot 

 be furprifing to fee changes produced in the colour of their imme- 

 diate defcendents. The contaminated air efcaping from the plants 

 themfelves, and from the foil under the bell, may be fufficient to 

 produce this effed. I formerly mentioned, that the colour, and 

 other qualities of plants growing near each other, may be changed 

 by abforbing the matter of tranfpiration and exudation. The argu- 

 ment is applicable with peculiar force to plants imprifoned fo clofely, 

 and having fo little accefs to frefh air. In this fituation, they muft, 

 of neceffity, feed upon each other. Confine a man and a woman 

 for years in a fmall ill-aired cell, and obferve their afpedt, and that 

 of their progeny. Their appearance will be very diflFerent from 

 that of children produced by healthy parents, and enjoying the be- 

 nefits of the fun's rays, and of the open air. 



4. That, independently of all thefe arguments, the experiment is 

 incomplete. Even on the fuppofition of the exiftence of fexes in 

 plants, the conclufion drawn from it cannot be admitted. The fame 

 change, for inftance, might have happened, if, inftead of a white 

 female and red male, a white female had been imprifoned with a red 

 female. In this cafe there could be no commixture of fexes ; and 

 yet, it is highly probable, that both would have ripened their feeds, 

 and that thefe feeds would have produced plants differently coloured 

 from the fame varieties growing in a natural ftate. Till thefe indif- 



penfible 



