148 



A DISCOUKSE 



BOOK II. the places of incision with diachylon plaster, and also bound as the rest, 

 """^^"^^ (lid^ within the space of three weeks, unite to the tree, though with some 

 shrivelling and scar ; the same experiment tried about Michaelmas, and 

 in the winter, came to nothing : where some branches were decorticated 

 quite round, without any union, a withering of the branch beyond the 

 incision ensued ; also a twig separated from a branch, with a sloping cut. 



their stoves, so that generation may be assisted by the help of the wind, the fruit drops off, 

 or miscarries. In 1723, a Ponipion flowered in Stenbrohalt garden, the male flowers 

 of which were carefully plucked off every day, as soon as they appeared, lest they should 

 draw from the female flowers too much of their nourishment ; the consequence Mas, that 

 not one fruit appeared on the plant that season. If we pluck the flowers of tlie male 

 Hemp, before those of the female plant are opened, we shall get none, or but very few 

 ripe seeds. Yet it happens sometimes, that the female Hemp bears one or two male 

 flowers, by which some of the females may be impregnated ; and this circumstance deceived 

 Camerarius. The Hops are of two sorts ; the one male, and the other female ; and that 

 which they commonly call the fruit, is only the calyx expanded and lengthened ; hence the 

 female plants, though not impregnated, can bear cones. This it was which deceived 

 Tournefort, so that he would not acknowledge the sexes of plants, because a female plant 

 of the Hop, in the garden at Paris, throve well, and bore fruit in plenty every year, when 

 no male plants were within several miles of it. The same thing happens in the Mulberry 

 and Elite) the berries of which are only succulent calyxes, but not seed-vessels or ovaria. — 

 One Richard Baal, a gardener at Brentford, sold a great quantity of Cauliflower seed, 

 which he raised in his own garden, to several gardeners in the suburbs of London, who 

 carefully sowed the seeds in good ground, but they produced nothing but the common 

 long-leaved Cabbage; for which reason they complained that they were imposed upon, 

 and commenced a suit against the aforesaid Baal in Westminster Hall. The judge's 

 opinion was, that Baal should return the gardeners their money, and also make good their loss 

 of time and crops. Ray's Hist. Vol. J. p. 42. This, however, ought not to be considered as 

 a fraud on the part of the poor gardener, but ought to be ascribed to the impregnation 

 of his good plants by the common Cabbage. Wherefore, if we have an excellent sort 

 of Cabbage, we ought not to let it flower in the neighbourhood of an inferior kind, lest the 

 good sort be impregnated by the dust of the other, whereby the seeds will produce a dege- 

 nerate race. If we intend to plant the Poplar or Willow, for walks, we should take only 

 the male plants for that purpose ; for if the females are planted, they will multiply so fast 

 as to form a grove instead of a walk. The Juniper does not produce fruit every year 

 in equal plenty ; for if rain falls during its time of flowering, the fruit is deprived of the 

 farina, and falls off. A female plant of the Juniper grew for many years in Clifford's 

 garden, but never produced any fruit for want of a male plant. The BJiodioIa, or Rose- 

 wort, grew in the Upsal garden from the year I696, at which time Professor Rudbeck 

 brought it thither from the mountains of Lapland ; but it never ripened its seeds, being 

 without a male plant. It is needless to mention more examples, though I could easily 



