OF FOREST-TREES. 153 



till now, passed for a little miracle, as it still may do for a thing extra- CHAP.VII. 

 ordinary, and rare enough ; for not only its passage, and how it should ^-'^y'^-^ 

 come there, unless haply some of the samera, or seed, of the old tree, 

 when pregnant, should have luckily fallen down within the hollow pipe, 

 or, as might be conjectured, from some sucker springing of a juicy root, 

 but the strange incorporating of the superior part of the bole with the 



gardener, or green-house, or any art, can prevent its perishing on the first approach of 

 winter. 



The stomach of plants is the earth, from which they receive their nourishment; and the 

 finest and most subtle part of the soil is their chyle. The root, which carries the chyle 

 from the stomach to the body of the plant, is analagous to the lacteals or chyliferous vessels 

 of animals. The trunk, which supports and gives strength to the whole plant, is analogous 

 td the bones. The leaves by which plants transpire, are instead of lungs. The leaves 

 may be also compared to the muscles of animals ; for by their agitation with the wind the 

 plant is put in motion. For these reasons, herbs furnished with leaves cannot thrive, 

 except they have air; but succulent plants, which have no leaves, e. g. some of the 

 Euphorbias, Torch-thistles, Melon-thistles, Prickly-pear, and tlie Slapelia, though shut up in 

 green-houses, and quite deprived of the external air, do thrive very well. If you shut up 

 a tree or a shrub, which is full of leaves, in a close room in the summer time, it will die ; 

 but if in the winter, when it has lost all its leaves, it will remain safe. Heat is to plants 

 analogous to the heart in animals. Plants have no heart, nor indeed have they any 

 occasion for such an organ, for they live in the same manner as polypes do in the animal 

 kingdom ; their juices mixed with air are propelled through the vessels, but not circulated 

 back again by returning vessels. The blood-vessels of animals are divided into various 

 branches, so also are the vessels of plants. 



From what has been said, it follows, that a flower which is furnished with antherse, but 

 wants the stigmata, is a male flower ; that a flower which has stigmata, but no antherte, 

 is a female ; and one that has both, is an hermaphrodite flower. Nor need we wonder, 

 that in the vegetable kingdom many plants are hermaphrodite, though in the animal 

 kingdom there are very few of this kind ; for there one sex can easily go to the other; 

 whereas plants are fixed to one spot, and cannot go from it. Justly, therefore, has the all- 

 wise Creator furnished snails and other slow-paced animals with the genital organs of both 

 sexes, lest the species should be extinct or lost ; during their copulation, then, the one acts 

 on the other, and each acts the part of male and female, while both impregnate and are im- 

 pregnated by each other. 



We call a plant which has only male flowers, a male plant; that which has only female 

 flowers, a female plant ; and that which has only hermaphrodite flowers, an hermaphrodite 

 plant. A fourth sort, having on one and the same stem both male and female flowers 

 distinct, is called an androgynous plant. There is also a fifth sort, namely, when on one 

 and the same plant there are not only hermaphrodite flowers, but also male or female 

 flowers ; and this is called a polygamous plant. When male flowers are added to the 

 hermaphrodite, they serve to impregnate those which have not been impregnated by their 



