t * * * § 79 ] 
Thus, for example, Diofcorides *, when treating of 
mercurialis , or what we here call French mercury, 
fays, that “ the feed of the female is produced in 
“ bunches, and is copious ; that of the male grows 
£< near the leaves ; that it is fmall and round, and is 
“ difpofed in pairs like tefficles.” Dodonasus, Lobel, 
Dalechamp, John and Cafpar Bauhin, Morrifon, 
Tournefort, and Boerhaave, in their feveral works, 
have in this followed Diofcorides, and have denomi- 
nated the feed-bearing plant of this kind, the male ; 
and the other, the female. Fuchfius and John Bau- 
hin likewife call the cynocrambe or dog’s mercury, 
which bears fruit, the male; and the fpiked one 
with male flowers only, the female. This miftake 
is obfervable in hemp §, hops, and fpinach. 
We obferve, that the operations of nature are car- 
ried on moff ufually by certain general laws, from 
which however fhe fometimes deviates. Thus al- 
moft all plants have either hermaphrodite flowers, or 
male and female flowers growing from the fame 
root, or male and female flowers from different roots : 
but there are a few of another clafs, which from the 
fame root furnifh either male and hermaphrodite 
flowers, or female and hermaphrodite flowers. Of 
this kind are the mulberry-tree, the mufa or plantain-, 
tree, white hellebore, pellitory, arrach, the afh-tree, 
and a few others. But of this clafs the e?npetru?n 
7j i or 
* Diofcorid. lib. iv. cap. 9. edit. Saracen. 
Atvb^uns oi J'i Tcip&zv/oy, ci cPe Ep t ux Cojctvtov x,a.\v<ri t Iv c T! 
X.&O&0V 1? pAv fioJqvoeiJ'n >9 ttoAuV 0 J'i apptiv vpls Tols -srzlatoic 
spoyyuhov, utX'jz^ op^i'J'/A K) J^uo ’Tr&UK&y.zvci . . . . 
§ Matthiol. in Diofcorid. p. 663. femcn tantum inmari gignitur: 
