OF FOEEST-TREES. 



139 



gets into pots and cases, eating our seedlings and gnawing the very roots, CHAP. Vll. 

 which should be searched out. And now we mention roots ; over- ^-^"y^^ 

 grown toads will sometimes nestle at the roots of trees, when they make 

 a cavern, which they infect with a poisonous effluvium or vapour, of 

 which the leaves, famished and flagging, give notice, and the enemy dug 

 out with the spade. But this chiefly concerns the gardeners mural fruit- 



those particles which are called animalcules in the male sperm of animals. The truth of 

 this we shall prove by the following arguments. 1. Preceding ike fruit. — The antherse and 

 their dust always come before the fruit. When the fruit sheds its seeds, it is come to ma- 

 turation. This is the case with the antherse; for when they shed their dust, they are 

 come to maturation, and have done their office ; yet their dust is always shed when the 

 flower is in full vigour, and then the antherse drop, and are useless. 2. Situation. — 

 The antherse are always so situated in the flower, that their dust, which is the male sperm, 

 may reach the pistillum or female organ ; for the stamina either suiTound the pistillum, as 

 in most flowers ; or, if the pistillum incline to the upper side of the flower, the stamina do 

 the same, as in the Didynamia ; or, if the pistillum nods, the stamina ascend, as in the 

 Cassias, and the common Winter-green. Several plants in the Monoecia class, have male 

 flowers over the female, as Indian Corn, Palma Christi. 3. Time. — The antherse and stiff- 

 mata are in full vigour at the self-same time, and this not only when both are in one and 

 the same flower, but also when they are in distinct or separate flowers ; so that the long- 

 catkins of the Hasel, Birch, and Alder, never discharge the dust of their antherse before the 

 stigmata below them are come out. The male Hemp never sheds its dust before the 

 pistilla of the female plants appear. 4. Cells. — Tournefort was of opinion, that the antherte 

 did the office of kidneys, purging the several parts of the plant from all such particles as 

 were not fit for its nourishment, by receiving them into their cells, and that their valves 

 were burst open by those accumulated excrements. Pontedera's opinion was, that the 

 antheras are nothing else but a cluster of cells, which receive a peculiar juice or fluid, and 

 then transmit it through the filaments to the receptacle, from whence it is carried to the 

 embryos of the seed ; but the falsehood of this opinion will appear from the consideration 

 of all the plants of the Dioecia class, the figure of the pollen, artificial fecundation, capri- 

 fication, and the culture of Palm-trees. If we cut asunder the antherse before they shed 

 their dust, we find their structure altogether as wonderful and curious as the seed-vessels 

 themselves. For within, they consist either of one cell, as the Mercury ; or two, as 

 Hellebore ; or three, as the Orchis ; or four, as the Fritillary ; and they open or split either 

 longitudinally, as the Leucoium, or greater Snow-drop ; or at the base, separating into 

 pieces or valves, as the Barren-wort ; or from the top, as the common Snow-drop ; or at 

 the two points or horns, as the Whortle, Heath, Winter-green, and Marsh-rosemary. 

 5. Castration. — If we cut off the antherse of any plant which bears but one flower, taking 

 care at the same time that no other plant of the same species is near it, the fruit proves 

 abortive, or at least produces seeds which will not vegetate. This is a certain truth, 

 which any one will find upon trial. 6. Figure. — The figure of the fertilizing dust will 

 clearly convince any one, that this fine powder is not accumulated by chance, or from the 



