48 



DOCTRINE OF THE SEXES OF PLANTS. 



The best proof of the sexes in plants is drawn from the pro- 

 duetion of hybrids, or bastards, which is well observed in Cab- 

 bages. One Richard Baal, a gardener at Brentford, sold a great 

 quantity of cauliflower seeds, 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 mostly the 

 common long-leafed cabbage, for which reason they complained 

 they were imposed upon, and commenced a suit against Baal in 

 Westminster Hall ; the judge's opinion was, that Baal must re- 

 turn the gardeners the money he had received, and also make 

 good their loss of time and crops, being wholly unacquainted 

 with the sexes of plants. Vide Rays History, vol. 1. p. 42. This 

 apparent fraud we ought not to ascribe to the poor gardener, for 

 it depended wholly on the impregnation by the common sorts ; 

 wherefore, if any one doth possess an excellent sort of cabbage, 

 he ought not to let it flower in the same bed with any other of an 

 inferior sort, lest the good sort should be impregnated with the 

 dust of the other, and produce a degenerate race*. 



* Those who wish for further information upon this curious point will do well to 

 consult Doctor Thornton's superb new Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus 

 Von Linnaeus. Editor. i 



