138 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK II. experience has taught us, that millepedes, (plentifully found under old 

 timber logs,) being dried and reduced to powder, and taken in drink, 

 are an admirable specific against the jaundice. They also purify the 

 blood, and clarify the sight. 



There is a pestilent green worm which hides itself in the earth, and 



Pine ; others the filaments of the stamina, as the Birthwort ; others the style, as the Grass 

 of Parnassus, &c. ; but all flowers whatever, except the Mosses, are furnished with the 

 antherse, or stigmata, or both together ; and as this holds universally in every species of 

 plant, (the Mosses only excepted,) these parts must necessarily constitute the essence of a 

 flower. If we find a flower with antherae, but no stigmata, we may also assuredly find 

 another flower either on the same, or on a different plant of the same species, which has 

 stigmata with the antherae, or without them. Pontedera, on the authority of the Hortus 

 INIalabaricus, contends, that there are some plants which have no antherae ; e. g. the Cycas 

 Circinalis, or Sago Palm-tree, the Cellis, or Nettle-tree, with some others : but in this he is 

 mistaken ; for even the number of the antherae in those plants he mentions is at present 

 very well known to botanists. The same objection has been made in regard to the Isoetes, 



or Quill-wort ; but Linnaeus discovered the antherae of this plant : It. Scan. Hence we 



perceive the error of the followers of Rivinus, who took the nectaria in the Hellebore, 

 Nigella, and Passion-flower, for flowers ; which nectaria have properly no pistilla nor 

 antherae. Tor the act of fecundation two things are requisite, namely, the genital organs 

 of both sexes; because, as was said above, one of the sexes alone cannot propagate the 

 species. Now the act of fecundation is performed in the flower ; therefore, it follows, that 

 the genital organs of both sexes must be present in the flower. We are here, Jiowever, to 

 observe, that the genital organs of both sexes are not always present in one and the same 

 flower. It is sufficient that those of the male be in one flower, and those of the female in 

 another. Since every plant bears seeds by which its offspring can be propagated, and 

 no egg can be hatched before fecundation, it will follow, that fecundation is as necessary 

 as the seeds themselves. Hence it appears, that the organs of both sexes, which serve for 

 fecundation, are altogether necessary, if the flower is perfect, and that they are the 

 essential parts. But we find no parts of a flower that are essential but the antheree 

 and stigmata, therefore, these parts are the genital organs of both sexes, serving for 

 fecundation. 



The male organs of generation in animals are very different. Some have a penis, as 

 the quadrupeds, birds, and serpents, some of the fishes, insects, and worms ; others have 

 no penis, as many of the true fishes, and those called shell-fish. Some have seminal 

 vesicles, as the greatest part of quadrupeds ; others have none, as the dog-kind. Some 

 have testicles distinct from the seminal vesicles, as the quadrupeds ; and others have both 

 testicles and seminal vesicles united in one, as the fishes. Now we maintain that the an- 

 therae, the male organs of generation in flowers, are nothing else but the bodies which 

 prepare and contain the male sperm : therefore, these antherae are the testicles together 

 with the seminal vesicles, and their dust the genuine male sperm of plants, answering to 



