426 PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY, ETC. 
-existence of the animal, before the impregnation of 
the ovum in the ovaries, sincerely confesses, that 
there is mo. pre: “existence of plants like that in 
animals. 
Uhe Epigenesis, or generation by a commixtion of 
the fluids given out both by male and female, is 
what most physiologists now assume as the only 
true theory of generation both in the animal and. 
vegetable kingdoms. Koelreuter confirmed it 
by numerous experiments, of which we shall men- 
tion one only: He took of the genus Nicotiana, 
the Nicotiana rustica and paniculata. The first he 
deprived of «all its stamens, and fecundated its 
pistil with pollen of the last species. | Nicotiana 
rustica has egg-shaped leaves, and a short, greenish 
yellow corol. Nicotiana paniculata, a stem half as. 
long again as the former, and roundish, cordate 
leaves, and much longer, yellowish green corols. 
The bastard offspring of both, kept in all its parts 
the middle betwixt the two species. He tried the 
same with more plants, and the re sult accorded per- 
fectly with the first. 
Were we therefore to admit the animalcula se- 
minalia, the hybrids could necessarily not have dif- 
fered in their form from the male plant ; and, on the 
other hand, were the evolution system founded in 
nature, they would have the same form as the fe- 
male plant. he hybrid, however, was a medium 
between both, it therefore certainly adopted some 
parts both from father and mother, and was formed 
by Epigenesis. | 
| § 293. 
