8 



ON HEMP. 



that the plants which produce only the flowers are the males, will 

 not, perhaps, be so readily admitted by such of our readers as are 

 unacquainted with the observations made relative to this part of the 

 vegetable economy. These observations, however, prove beyond 

 a doubt, that there are two sexes in plants, as well as animals. It 

 has been ascertained by experiment, that the co-operation of the two 

 sexes is necessary to give fecundity and the power of reproduction 

 to the seed of plants ; in the same manner as, in the feathered race, 

 the egg of the duck and hen, for example, will not be fecund, or 

 capable of producing a duckling or chicken, without the co-opera- 

 tion of the drake or cock. But it may be necessary to observe, that, 

 to enable the male-plant to impregnate the female, it is not requisite 

 that they should touch or be close to one another ; for it is very pro- 

 bable, that it is the dust contained in the stamens that conveys the 

 fecundation. This dust is very fine, and extremely light, so that 

 the least agitation of the air wafts it in every direction : and there is 

 so prodigious a quantity of it, that the whole of the surrounding 

 air must be filled with it, when at the proper season the capsules 

 which contain it burst open. If but one particle of this dust be 

 deposited in the proper organ, one of the seeds will thereby be 

 fecundated : and it is, perhaps, owing to the want of these grains 

 of dust, that so many abortive seeds are found under the female 

 Hemp plants. It would seem, that Nature had formed the male 

 Hemp for no other purpose but to produce this fecundating dust ; 

 for as soon as the flowers have blown, and shed this dust, the male 

 stalks wither and perish. 



At 



