140 A DISCOURSE 



I500K II. trees; though I question not but that even our forest-trees suffer by such 

 ""^•""^^"^^ pernicigus vapours, rats, and other stinking vermine, making their nests 

 within them. But for all these let our industrious planter (especially the 

 learned favourers of the most refined parts of horticulture) consult the 

 Discourses and Experiments of Sig. Fran. Redi, Malpighius, Leuwen- 

 hoek, Swammerdam, &c. with our own learned doctors, Lyster, Sloane, 



dryness of the antherae. Malpighi, Grew, Moreland, and Geofroy, who had all viewed 

 the figure of these particles with good microscopes, found all the particles exactly equal 

 to one another, but in different genera as great a difference in shape and figure, as the 

 seeds themselves. As for example, in the Sun-flower the particles are globular 

 and echinated, or full of prickles ; in the Bloody Crane's-bill, they are like a perforated 

 globule of fire : in the Mallows, they appear like wheels with teeth; in the Ricinus, or 

 Palma Christi, they are shaped like a grain of wheat ; in the Pansies, they are angulated ; 

 in the Turkey Wheat, flat and smooth ; in the Borage, like a thin leaf rolled up ; in the 

 Narcissus, kidney-shaped ; in the Comfrey, like double globules. The powder of the an- 

 thera?, in point of fecundation, answers to Leuwenhoek's animalcules in the male sperm ; 

 and the stigma, which receives this dust, is always moist, that the dust may instantly adhere 

 or stick to it. The observation of the famous botanist B. Jussieu, concerning the Maple, 

 deserves our notice. " Those gentlemen," says he, " wlio have examined the fertilizing 

 dust of the Maple by microscopes, have dfawn the particles in form of a cross. But 

 I found their form to be globular, and as soon as the particles touched any moisture, they 

 bvirst into four parts or valves, in the shape of a cross." From which observation we may 

 infer, that those particles are hollow globules containing some subtle matter within, and 

 that as soon as the hollow globules touch the moisture, they burst, and discharge their ex- 

 ceeding fine contents. This last observation throws some light on the generation of animals, 

 from its analogy to the seminal animalcules. Upon the whole, it abundantly appears, that 

 the antheree are the male organs of generation, and their dust the genuine male sperm. 

 Since, in every flower, the antherae and stigmata are the genital organs serving for fecunda- 

 tion, and the antherae the male organs, it is obvious to every one, that the stigmata, the 

 other essential part of the flower, is the female organ of generation, which we shall more 

 fully prove by the following arguments. 



The parts of the pistillum are three, the germen, the style, and the stigma. The ger- 

 men, or seed-bud, while the plant is in flower, is always imperfect and immature, being 

 only the rudiment of the future foetus ; the style is no essential part, for it is wanting in 

 many species of plants ; but the germen can never bring the fruit to maturity, except it be 

 within the flower alopg with the stigma. Hence it follows, that the stigma is that part of 

 the flower, which receives the impregnating dust. This will farther appear, — 1. From the 

 situation. — For we are to consider that the stigma is always so situated, that the anthera?, 

 or their impregnating dust, can reach it, as we have sliewn above. Hence the syngene- 

 sious plants are rarely barren. Moreover, the stigma has always a figure proper and 

 peculiar to itself, so that in most (though not all) plants it is double, when the fruit consists 

 of two cells, as in the masked and umbelliferous plants ; triple, when the seed-vessel 



