146 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK II. Excorticated and bark-bared trees may be preserved by iiourisliing up 

 ^"^^^'^^^ a shoot from the foot, or below the stripped place, and inserting it into 

 a slit above the wounded part : to be done in the spring, and secured 

 from air, as you treat a grafF : this I have out of the very industrious 

 INIr. Cook, p. 48. But Dr. Merret brought us in this relation to the 

 Royal Society, that making a square section of- the rinds of Ash and 



the time of blowing, the scapus is lengthened, till the calyx has reached the surface of the 

 water; which done, the flower is expanded, and, after a few days, the flowering and 

 impregnation being over, it sinks again, the stem turning in a spiral form as before. This 

 is the female plant. ■ The Vallisner'ioides of Micheli grows in the same places under water, 

 having a flower stem scarce an inch high, which consequently does not reach the surface 

 of the water ; this bears many flowers, which, when the time of flowering approaches, 

 drop from the scapus, and rise like little bladders : as soon as they have reached the 

 surface of the water, though before shut, they then open, and swimming about, shed their 

 dust on the female flowers, which are also swimming in the same places. This is the male 

 plant of the former. H. Cliff". ^S^. Micheli, without attending to the sex, has carefullj' 

 observed, and faithfully described this circumstance. Q. Syngenesious Flowers. — The compound 

 flowers are formed in different ways. In the Polygamia Mqiialis all the florets are furnished 

 with stamina and pistilla. In the Polygamia Sujjerflua all the florets have stamina and pistilla 

 in the disk or middle of the flower ; but in the radius there are only female flowers, which 

 are impregnated by the male dust of those in the disk. In the Polygainia Superjiua the disk 

 is filled with hermaphrodite florets, as in the former; but the female flowers, which con- 

 stitute the radius, cannot ripen their seed, being all without stigmata. Lastly, the florets 

 of the Polygamia Necessaria, which fill the disk, have the stamina and pistilla, but for want 

 of the stigmata, these florets bear no seeds, and the plants would all have been fjarren, had 

 not the all-wise Creator furnished the radius, which consists only of female florets, with 

 complete pistilla that have the stigmata, and consequently ripen the seed. 10. ConsideratioJi 

 of all sorts of Flowers. — The tenth and last argument is drawn from the genuine consideration 

 of all sorts of flowers. And here, for the sake of brevity, we shall examine only a few out 

 of the many that might be pi'oduced in proof of the Linnaean doctrine of the generation 

 of plants. The Celosia, Cock's-conib, is furnished with a pistillum surrounded by five 

 stamina, whose filaments are joined below by a thin plaited film. In moist weather this 

 film is relaxed, and the antheras stand at a great distance from one another, but in dry 

 weather the film is contracted, by which means the filaments come close together, so that 

 the antherse almost touch the stigma, and hence the impregnation is assisted. The Saxifrage 

 has ten stamina, in the centre of which are two pistilla. After being in flower for some 

 days, two of the stamina, which stand opposite to one another, meet, that their dust may 

 fall perpendicularly down on the stigmata, while their antherae force open, as it were, each 

 other's fariniferous cells, by rubbing against one another; next day these two stamina 

 recede from one another, and two others supply their place, and thus they continue to 

 do, till all the males have discharged their dust in the same manner. The grass 



