50 Linncean and Natural Systems. 



spicuous in the vegetable world. Weak and tender in infancy ; 

 beautiful and salacious in youth ; grave, robust, and fruitful in 

 manhood ; and when old age approaches, the head droops, the 

 springs of life dry up, and in fine, the poor tottering vegetable 

 returns to the dust from which it sprang." 



" The term, disease, means nothing more than a certain cor- 

 ruption of life.- It is well known that vegetables are subject to 

 diseases as well as animals ; when over-heated, they turn thirsty, 

 languish, and fall to the ground ; when too cold, they are tor- 

 mented with the chilblain, and not unfrequently expire ; they are 

 sometimes afflicted with cancers; and every plant is infested 

 with insects peculiar to its species." 



Linnseus then follows, with Dr. Harvey's idea of every living 

 being springing originally from an egg, and he asserts that seeds 

 are the eggs of vegetables ; and goes on to show that before the 

 production of a seed a union must take place between the sta- 

 mens and pistils of the flower, which organs, he says, " always 

 precede the fruit ; as soon as the anthers come to maturity, 

 which constantly happens before the maturity of the fruit, they 

 continue to throw out their pollen as long as the flower lasts ; 

 but decay and fall off whenever the fruit comes to perfection." 



" The anthers of all plants are uniformly situated in such a 

 manner, that the pollen may, with the greatest facility, fall upon 

 the stigma or female organ." [The Editor would say, that the 

 exceptions to this rule are only apparent Flint remarks, that 

 there are stamens which cannot reach half the height of their be- 

 loved pistil. Nature varies her arrangements so as not to be 

 defeated in her object. These Lilliputians strive in vain to reach 

 their gigantic Venus. As they cannot reach her, she conde- 

 scendingly comes down to them. In this way the Imperial 

 Crown, the Ancoly, and the Campanula hang down their stems, 

 which position, so graceful in the flower, is a foresight of nature. 

 The pollen of the stamen comes in contact with the stigma of 

 the pistil by falling upon it ; and as soon as the mystery is ac- 

 complished and the flower fecundated, the peduncle which sus- 

 tains it turns up again toward the sky. Its bower of love was 

 concealed ; but it shows the cradle of its children. Whenever 

 you see flowers gently inclining their bells toward the turf, you 

 may infer that the stamens which they inclose are shorter than 

 the pistil. And there are «*ome, the habits of whose loves are still 



