[ 7 ° ] 
ed occafionally to convey them to the ovarium *. Mr, 
Baker was extremely defirous to repeat thefe experi- 
ments : but as it was abfolutely neceflary to fpread the 
blood as thin as poflible, to render it very tranfparent, 
without which nothing can be Teen by fuch fmall 
glafles, he could not poffibly prevent its becoming 
quite dry, before he could apply it to the eye, and 
confequently was unable to perceive any floating 
globules : and though he has been many years con- 
verfant with microfcopes, he has not been able to 
contrive any method of applying the parts of genera- 
tion of plants in fuch manner, to thefe glaffes,as to view 
this wonderful impregnation, 
* The curious will find the whole account, with copper-plates 
relating thereto, Phil. Tranf. Vol. LV. p. 258 — 270; from 
whence one fingle paflage lhall be here quoted, viz. p. 262. 
“ The grains being arrived at a ftate of maturity before they 
“ iflued from the antherce, are prepared to burft and difcharge 
“ their contents when they fall on the hairs : and the female 
“ organ aflifts likewife in producing this effect; for foon after a 
“ grain has lodged itfelf, the point of the hair begins to open, 
“ and the mouth extends itfelf by degrees over the furface of the 
“ grain, till almoft the whole body of the grain is drawn within 
“ the tube ; in this fituation the grain foon yields to the com- 
“ preffion of the tube, and difcharges its corpufcles, which, with 
Xi the ailiftance of the fluid parts of the pulp that enter with them, 
“ or of thejuices with which the tube itfelf is furnifhed, float on 
“ till they enter the longitudinal dudts, which convey them to 
“ the germen.” — It mttft be obferved here, in juftice to Mr. 
Turberville Needham, F. R. S. that he was the perfon who firft 
difeovered, that, on applying water to the Farina fcecundans, 
many of its grains emitted ftreams of exquifiiely minute globules, 
as if through a fmall aperture : this he publifhed in the year 
1745 t> and from thence imagined the impregnation of plants 
to be carried on in a manner l'omewhat fimilar to that in the 
account referred to ; but the fame juftice mull allow, that, before 
Father di Torre, nobody is fuppofed to have feen thefe feveral 
progreflions towards impregnation. 
f Vid. Microfccpical Difcoveries by Mr. Needham, p. 73, See, 
2 It 
