332 CHAPTER 25. 
dent he had himfelf no decifive ideas, or 
fpecific knowledge, drawn from nature, re- 
lating to the Jex of plants. He placed it^ 
in fome inftances, in the different habit 
alone, or in other difcriminations foreign 
to the confideration of the flower i and, 
though he fhews an inaccurate knowledge 
of the particular circumftaiices of the palm, 
and the fig-tree, yet he denies, in another 
place, that either of them produce flowers^ 
This imperfedl idea of the Jex of flowers, 
in the Date^ and even in the Fig-tree^ is of 
high antiquity; being recorded by Hero- 
BOTUs, Theophr ASTus, and Pliny, 
The neceffity v/hich the antient cultiva- 
tors of the Date -tree were under, of pro- 
moting the adtion of the male-flowers on the 
female, which operation held alfo in fome 
meafure in \!a^Fig-tree^ th-QPi/iachia^ and the 
MaJJicy would almoft neceflarily fuggeft the 
application of this analogy wiih the animal 
kingdom. Neverthelefs, although the fad: 
was thus obtruded on their fenfes, inatten- 
tive to the ftrudlure of flowers, and igno- 
rant of the offices of the feveral parts, they 
remained uijacquainted v^ith the true ope- 
rations 
