GEN 
the nutritious juice, in puihing forth tendrils or 
creeping roots, which fo weaken the plants, as not to 
be able & to bring the fruit to perfection ; but there is 
no fruit or feed to be feen, unlefs a flower has been 
fent as a meflenger before it, to give notice of its 
approach ; though it is not always upon the fame 
plant, yet it is ftill upon fome other plant of the fame 
fpecies •, for the flowers are to be feen upon diftinct 
plants, different branches, or different parts of the 
branch from the fruit, in the Abies, Corylus, Nux 
Juglans, &c. the Mercurialis, Spinachia, &c. 
But the fruit never appears, or never begins to in- 
creafe upon thefe plants, till the flower is fpent and 
gone 5 therefore they muff ferve for another ufe, than 
to be merely ornamental ; for if that were their prin- 
cipal ufe, they would be always confpicuous, which 
they are not for the moft part in apetalous flowers ; 
and they would always be to be feen, and never be 
hid; which is not fo in the Afarum,- Hydrocotyle, 
&c. where, though the flower is large enough in pro- 
portion to the fruit, yet it is not to be feen, unlefs 
the leaf be turned up, and both flower and fruit be 
narrowly fearched for. 
The Frumenta and Gramina have their ftamineous 
flowers ; yet in fome of them the flower is feldom to 
be feen, unlefs the fpike be fhaken; and then the 
apices will appear. 
The Polypodium, and other capillary plants, have 
regular flowers, which precede the minute capfuls or 
feed-veffels, but neither of them are confpicuous with- 
out a microfcope. 
From thefe inftances it appears, that the flowers are 
not conftantly a guard to preferve the tender em- 
bryos from the injuries of the air, for then the flowers 
muft always have been upon the fame pedicle with 
the fruit. 
Therefore, fince the appearance of the flower is the 
firft ftep towards the production of the feed, whether 
both be upon the fame pedicle or not, it neceflarily 
follows, that the one muff contribute towards the 
bringing of the other to perfection. 
The antients taking notice, that feveral plants did 
produce flowers and had no feeds, and that other 
plants of the fame fpecies, and fown from the fame 
feed, did produce the feed without a previous flower, 
they were ready to call the one male, and the other 
female, without any notion that the one was aflifting 
to the other ; for they looked upon fuch flowers to 
be only barren ; and therefore they called thofe which 
had flowers female, and thofe that produced the 
fruits, male plants. Thus Mercurialis is called Spi- 
cata Fcemina, and Tefticulata Mas. That which 
produces the fruit muft needs be the female, as the 
female animal brings forth the foetus ; therefore the 
tefticulata muft needs be the female, and the fpicata 
the male. 
Wherever the plants are annual, thefe with the 
flowers, and fuch as have the feed, are always near to 
each other but where the root is perennial, and where 
the plant is more frequently propagated by the root 
than the feed, the cafe alters ; for there being no need 
of the feed to propagate the plant, there is the lefs 
need of the flower to be nearer to the plant which 
produces the feed. 
So the Spinachia and the Lupulus are frequently feen 
to grow, to produce the feed, and the other the fqua- 
mous fruit when the plants which produce the male 
flowers of the one or the other, are at fome diftance. 
And this is fo far from being an objection againft the 
neceffity of two fexes in plants as well as in animals, 
that it is an argument to confirm it ; for it Ihews the 
wonderful contrivances in order to preferve the fpe- 
cies, when the ordinary means of propagating it by 
the feed cannot be fo conveniently attained. 
Thefe, and more that might be produced, being 
evident proofs of two fexes in plants, as well as in ani- 
mals, we ftiall in the next place, give fome experi- 
ments to confirm this in a negative way, as have been 
already done in a pofitive. 
When plants have been deprived of their male flowers, 
GEN 
l • • ; - * * . * -"J 
or male parts ih the flower; they either produced 
no feed at all, or if they did, they became abortive; 
dried up, or dwindled away ; or though the feeds did 
come to perfection, they were barren; of did not 
produce. 
Experiment i. Mr. Geoffroy having cut off all the 
ftamineous tufts of male flowers from the top of the 
ftalk in the Maiz or Turky- wheat, asfoon as they ap- 
peared, and before the fpike loaded with the em- 
bryos of the femen had put forth from the alae of the 
leaves, feveral of thefe embryos decayed and dried 
up after they were pretty big ; but fome grains upon 
their pedicles all along the fpike fwelled confiderably* 
and feemed to be full of the bud, and were confe- 
quently fertile, while all the others mifcarried, and 
there was not one fpike where the whole feeds did not 
ripen to the full. 
This experiment is a fufficient proof of the ufe of 
the male flowers of this plant for whatfoever that is 
which flows from the racemi of thefe flowers, it feems 
it muft be conducive not only for the impregnation of 
the feed, but alfo for the growth and impregnation of 
the fruits 
At prefertt we fhall Ihew, that what nourifhment is 
ufually furnifned by the pedicle to the embryos, does 
not appear to be capable to dilate or expand itfelf, or 
contribute to the continual fupply of nutritious par-* 
tides, unlefs the embryos were animated or enlivened 
by the fpirit which fhould have flowed from the male 
flowers ; fo that they were fo debilitated and weaken- 
ed, in afcending from the body of the plant towards 
the embryos, before they could arrive at them, that 
they which otherwife might have ferved for the aug- 
mentation and increafe of all the embryos upon the 
fpike, could not now do any thing more than com 
tribute to the ripening of a few. And although Mr, 
Geoffroy might have imagined, that thefe few feeds 
which came to perfection were fertile alfo, becaufe 
they were full of germs, yet he could not be fnre of 
that, unlefs he had fown the fame feeds next feafon* 
and tried whether they would chit or not, 
Gardeners who buy Onion and Leek-feed brought 
from Strafburgh, commonly try the following expe- 
riment : they put a few of the feeds into a pot of wa- 
ter mixed with earth, and if they find they begin to 
fpring, or fend forth the feminal leaf or fibre of the 
root, after a few days, they judge of the product of 
it ; and notwithstanding all the feeds without this 
trial may feem to be productive, being equally firm, 
hard, and folid, perhaps not more than one third of 
them will prove fertile. 
And this barrennefs may proceed, either becaufe they 
had never been impregnated by the male parts of the 
flower, or that they had been too much expofed to 
the air ; being fome time or other too much moift- 
ened, and not afterwards been carefully dried, or have 
been kept too long, by which neglect they lofe their 
fpirit or life, 
Now, if the fulnefs, folidity and firmnefs of a feed is 
not a fure fign of its fertility, then Mr. Geoffroy 
might have been miftaken in his opinion of the ferti- 
lity of thefe feeds in the Maiz, fince he did not make 
any trial of it, by committing it to the ground. 
In like manner, as to his fecond experiment of the 
Mercurialis Diofcoridis, where he railed fome plants 
which had the fruit, and others which had the fta- 
mineous flowers, and removed the fforiferous plants 
before the flowers were blown, every one of the feeds 
upon the fructiferous plants, except five or fix, mif- 
carried ; wljich feeds were fo full, that he was per- 
fuaded they Were capable of producing new plants, 
and the like was found by Camerarius in the Cannabis, 
Yet inafmuch as neither of them tried the experi- 
ment, by lowing the fame feed the fecond year, they 
could not be fure but that they might have failed in 
their expectation. 
Mr. Bobart, overfeer of the phyfic-garden at Oxford, 
many years fince, which was before the doctrine of 
the different fexes of plants was well underftood, being 
herbarizing, found a plant of the Lychnis iylveftris 
iimplex^ 
zu 
