[ * 7 8 ] 
foon as they arrive, by the action of the air, they 
expand themfelves, and fwim round the female flow- 
ers, which are blown at the fame time. Thefe laft 
have a long fpiral foot-flalk, by which they attain 
the furface of the water, and remaining there in 
flower a few days, are impregnated by the male 
flowers detached from the ftalk at the bottom. This 
operation feems to be thus directed, as the Jarina 
fcecundans could not exert its effects in fo denfe a 
medium as water and we find, that even the her- 
maphrodite flowers of water-plants, finch as thofe 
of potamogiton , ranunculus aquaticus , hottsnia , and 
nymphcea , thefe, I fay, never expand themfelves, un- 
til they reach the furface of the water. 
But to return : it was not pofiible for me,- with- 
out premifing thefe things, to make evident what I 
juft now mention’d, in relation to the falfeiy deno- 
minating the fexes of plants ; as it is to this laA clafs 
that the wrong application has been made by bota- 
nical writers. This error feems to have been firfl: 
introduced fo early as by Diofcorides, and has been 
continued through a great variety of writers even to 
our own time. It is mod certain, that thofe plants, 
which produce the feed, ought to be confidered as 
females ; but it happens that in the French and dog’s 
mercury, the feeds are produced in the female plants 
by pairs ; and thefe are contained in a capfule, 
which was thought to refemble the fcrotum of ani- 
mals ; and from this tefliculated appearance they 
called thefe plants males, and the others females. 
3 Thus, 
