C »7 6 ] 
diilances, the farina Jcecundans, which Providence, 
on account of its being liable to be fpoiled by rain, 
or diffipated by winds, has provided in great abun- 
dance, is conveyed to the female by means of the 
atmofphere. It is this clafs of vegetables, and the 
following, the quantity of the produce of which is 
much more precarious than thofe plants, which have 
hermaphrodite flowers ; as the impregnation of thefe 
lafl maybe performed within their own calyx ; whereas 
the former mult neceffarily commit their farina to 
the circumambient air. it is for this reafon, that it 
during the time of the flowering of thefe plants, the 
weather is either very wet or ftormy, their produce 
of fruit will be very inconflderable, from the Spoil- 
ing or haftv diflupation of the male farina. Thus 
independent of frofts, the fruit of the nut and fllberd- 
tree will be moll: numerous in thofe years, in which 
the months of January and February are the leaft 
ftormy and wet ; as at that time their flowers are 
produced. For the fame reafons, a ftormy or wet 
May dcftroys the chef nuts ; and the fame weather 
in July prodigioufly leflens the crop of Mays or In- 
dian corn, as its lpikes of male flowers hand lofty, 
and at a confiderable diftance from the female, in 
like manner a judgment may be formed of the reft 
of thefe. 
Some of the more fkilful modern gardeners put in 
practice, with regard to melons and cucumers, the very 
method mention’d by Theophraftus 2000 years ago, 
in regard to the palm-tree. As thefe plants, early in 
the feafon, are in this climate confined to frames 
and glafles, the air, in which they grow, is more 
ftagnant than the open air, whereby the diftribution 
of 
