OF FOREST-TREES. 



65 



Besides this general definition, as to what is meant by Trees, Fru- cHAP. 

 texes, &c. they are specially distinguished by other characters, viz. Leaves, 

 Buds, Blossoms, kc. but more especially by what they produce of more 

 importance ; by their fruit ye shall know them. 



The Glandifer^, Oaks, and Ilexes, yield acorns and other useful ex- 

 crescences. — The Mast-bearers are the Beech, and such as include their 

 seeds and fruit in rougher husks, as the Chestnut-tree, &c. — The Walnut, 

 Hasel, Avelans, &c. are the Nuciferag. — To the Coniferas, Resiniferae, 

 and Squamiferee, belong the whole tribe of Cedars, Firs, Pines, &c. — 

 Apples, Pears, Quinces, and several other Edulge fruits^ Peaches, Apri- 

 cots, Plums, &c. are reduced to the Pomiferee. — The Bacciferae are such 

 as produce Kernels, Sorbs, Cherries, viz. Holly, Bay, Laurel, Yew, 

 Juniper, Elder, and all the Berry-bearers. — The Genistae in general, and 

 such as bear their seeds in cods, come under the tribe of Siliquosas. — The 

 Lanuginosae are such as bed their seeds in a cottony down. 



ception is performed by the junction of the male and female ; but it has remained a doubt 

 with some, whether the union of the sexes be as essential in the propagation of vegetables. 

 The great Linnaus has formed his noble system of Botany upon the certainty that all 

 plants have male and female organs, either growing upon the same tree, or upon different 

 trees of the same species : his method is distinguished by the name of the Sexual 

 System, and is now universally acknowledged. On its first appearance, it was received 

 with all that caution that becomes an enlightened age ; and Nature was traced experi- 

 mentally through all her variations before it was universally assented to. Tournefort 

 refused to give it a place in his system ; and Pontedera, though he had carefully examined 

 it, treated it as chimerical. The learned Dr. Alston, Professor of Botany in the University 

 of Edinburgh, violently opposed it ; but the proofs which Dr. Linnaeus has given amongst 

 the aphorisms of his Fundamenta Botanica, and farther illustrated and explained in his 

 Philosophia Botanica, are so clear, that the mind does not hesitate a moment in pro- 

 nouncing animal and vegetable conception to be the same: there is, however, this 

 difference ; in animals fruition is voluntary, but in vegetables necessary and mechanical. 

 Another and more striking proof of the analogy between plants and animals may be drawn 

 from observations made in their infant states, at which early period they seem to be nourished 

 and protected in a similar manner. For this the curious reader is requested to consult 

 the note upon page 27, in which he will find sufficient proofs to convince him, that every 

 blade of grass which he contemptuously treads upon, has been nurtured in its infancy by 

 the hand of Providence, with as much care, and in the same manner, as Man himself, with 

 all his pre-eminence of station. 



Volume 1. Q 



