OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



2^9 



■wind, and to infeds, he may enjoy his theory ; but few men of 

 penetration will join him in opinion. 



But, if thefe fads and reafonings fliould not be fufficient to con- 

 vince every believer in the fexual fyftem of plants that the hypothe- 

 fis has no foundation in Nature, Spalanzani, a late ingenious Italian 

 naturalift, has, by a number of experiments, removed the poffibility 

 of any rational doubt on the fubjedl. 



Spalanzani, in order to make a complete inveftigation of this fub- 

 je<a, performed a number of experiments on what are called herma- 

 fhrodite^ monoecious^ and dioicous plants. 



Hermaphrodite plants comprehend all thofe which have ftamina 

 and piftils, or the male and female organs, in the fame flowers. To 

 difcover whether the pollen had any influence upon the fertility of 

 the feeds, Spalanzani forced' open the petals, or flower-leaves, forae 

 time before they began to expand. He then cut off all the ftamina, 

 or male parts, before the fuppofed foecundating duft was ripe, lea- 

 ving the female part to its fate. The refult was, that, in many of 

 the plants, the feeds did not ripen, or even acquire their full fize ; 

 in others, they grew to the natural fize ; but, after being committed 

 to the ground, they did not germinate. Above thirty years ago, a 

 fimilar fet of experiments were made, in the Botanic Garden at Edin- 

 burgh, by the late Dr Alfton, the then Profefibr of Botany. But, 

 whether Dr Alfton's experiments were performed with greater dex- 

 terity than thofe of Spalanzani, it is impoflible to determine. The 

 event, however, was the reverfe ; for Dr Alfton's plants, which 

 were treated in the fame manner with thofe of Spalanzani, not only 

 lipened their feeds, but thefe feeds, when fown, were found to be as 

 fertile as If no fuch operation had been performed. But no experi- 

 ments of this kind can be made with any degree of certainty upon 



K k 2 hermaphrodite 



