GEN 
implex, no apices-, and taking notice that this was not 
only in one, but in all the flowers upon the lame plant, 
lie imagined it might be a new fpecies and therefore 
■marked the plant, and took care to have it preferved 
till the feeds were ripe ; and then, they being full, 
hard, and firm, and to outward appearance full of 
germ, he fowed them in a proper place in the garden 
the next feafon, but not a plant fprung up from them. 
Thefe and other inftances, fet the opinion of the dif- 
ferent fexes of plants upon another footing than has 
been received by moll of our modern authors j for it 
imports, that it is not the nourifhment of the grofs 
fubftance of the feed itfelf which is hereby meant, nor 
the increafe of the feed-veffel, which is thereby de- 
ilgned , for (as is already obferved) a hen can lay an 
egg, without having before had congrefs with a cock ; 
and this, when newly laid, jfhall be of the fame big- 
nefs, colour, tafte, and fmell, with another egg which 
lias been cocked (as they call it ;) i. e. which has been 
fecundated by the mafculine feminal materies : but 
the difference will appear, when both are put under 
the hen, in order to be hatched ; for the one fhali pul- 
lulate or chit, and the other fhali become fetid and 
rot. 
The cafe is juft the fame with the feed of a plant, it 
may be augmented and increafed in its bulk •, it may 
become firm, hard, and folid, and have all the tokens 
of a perfecft ripenefs ; the feed- veffels may be enlarged, 
and the pulp or parenchyma of the fruit may be aug- 
mented ; and yet the particles of the feed may remain 
crude, indigefted, and incapable to be explicated and 
dilated, or fet in a fuitable motion, whereby to pro- 
trude the fibrilla of the root at one end, and the fe- 
minal leaves at the other ; except it has before re- 
ceived fome extraneous matter, or fome a&ive particles 
from the male parts of the flower, or from the male 
flower itfelf. 
In order to confirm the neceffity of two fexes of plants, 
as well as in animals, this familiar confideration may 
be added : that the fertility or barrennefs of any tree, 
in the more or lefs fruitful feafons, may be known to 
ignorant or lefs curious perfons, by the quantity of 
the flowers which appear in the fpring time ; and that 
not only in trees alone, where the flower and fruit are 
upon one and the lame foot-ftalk, but alfo in fuch 
trees, where the flowers are upon diftind trees, or fe- 
parate places upon the fame tree ; for it is eafy to 
determine by the catkins or iuli upon the Walnut, 
Filbert, or Hazle-trees, whether fuch or fuch trees 
will be fertile or barren for the enfuing feafon, before 
any of the embryos begin to break, be pufhed forth, 
or appear. 
Having already treated of the male and female parts 
of flowers, we fhali next confider their ufe. 
Flowers, in this refped, may aptly be divided into 
that of male flowers, which (as has been before ob- 
ferved j were formerly reputed barren ; and die plants 
which produce them were alfo called female plants, 
becaufe thofe perfons not having any notion of dif- 
ferent fexes in plants, they were called female, upon 
account of their weaknefs ; or if they had any thought 
of fexes in them, it was only illufive. 
The ancients were ignorant of thofe which are now- 
a-days called hermaphrodite flowers ; and they, 'not 
having a true notion of fexes of plants, could not ima- 
gine that the parts of both fexes Ihould be in one 
-flower, upon one and the fame foot-ftalk. 
And although hermaphrodite animals bear the leaft 
proportion in the animal kingdom, yet hermaphro- 
dites have the greateft (bare in the vegetable, though 
they are not fo numerous as they have been fuppofed 
to be •, for upon a ftridt examination it will be found, 
that a great many more plants have diftinbl male and 
female flowers, than was formerly believed. 
The neceffity of different fexes in plants having been 
demonftrated, and that die female feed, though it 
Should ripen to the full, cannot be fertile, except it 
be impregnated by what it receives from the male 
parts of flowers, 'we fhali next explain the organs of 
generation in both fexes. .... 
• 5 
GEN 
In the animal oeconomy, there are, befides thofe 
veffels that are deftinated for nutrition, and the fecre- 
tion of the feveral juices in the body, fpermatic veffels, 
which confift of prteparantia, deferentia, and conti- 
nents femcn. The praeparantia in males, are the 
blood-vefiels and the teftes the one conveys the 
blood, and the other feparates the fernen from blood, 
and elaborates it. 
So likewife in plants there are veffels that receive the 
nutritious particles from the earth, and convey it to 
the extremity of the plant ; fome of which tend di- 
reftly to the leaf, and others to the flowers. 
Thofe which go to the foot-ftalk of the flower may 
not improperly be called fpermatic-veffels, for it is 
from them that the feminal particles in male, female, 
and hermaphrodite flowers are feparated ; therefore 
the foot-ftalks of the hermaphrodite flowers are pro- 
portionably larger than thofe either of the male or fe- 
male ; they have a double office, and contribute fuc- 
cefiively to both. 
' In thofe where the calyx becomes the fruit, the 
greateft fupply is furnifhed to it firft, and diftributed 
in its cortical parts, as is vifible in the Rofef in which 
the foot-ftalk is fo far enlarged at firft, as to be of an 
equal bignefs with the bud. 
After the. calyx is thus formed, the next diftribution 
is to the inner or centrical part of the flower, which 
Dr. Grew calls attire, and where the piftffium becomes 
the fruit ; the piftillum and ftylus are formed at the 
fame time with the ftamina and apices. 
The ftylus at the very firft acquires both its due length 
and bignefs 5 for the nutritious particles afcending in 
the center never ftop till the ftylus is ftretched out to 
its full length ; and in fuch as are furnifhed with a 
peculiar apex, that is formed firft ; the neck of the 
ftylus, or that part next to it, is the biggeft from 
thence it gradually decreafes in its grollnefs, till it 
comes to the piftillum. This is eafily perceived by 
thofe who will take the pains to open the bud of a 
Lily, Tulip, &c. before they are half blown. 
The ftamen is furnifhed next with an extraordinary 
fupply of the nutritious particles before the flower is 
blown ; thefe, whether fewer or more, are at firft: 
brought to their proportional largenefs, being round 
and juicy. 
The apex is the third which receives this extraordinary 
fupply of the nourifhment, for after that the ftylus 
is formed, that it may lean to it after the veffels of 
the ftamen and fummit are extended to their full 
length, and fo formed, that they can convey fuch an 
extraordinary quantity of particles as may fill up the 
capacity of the apex, it is then more enlarged than 
ever after ; for if the flower of a Lily be opened be- 
fore it be blown, the apex will be found to .be full as 
long as the ftamen ; for as the one half of the apex 
covers the ftamen, fixed to its center, fo the other 
half of it is fo far extended above the ftamen, as the 
ftamen remained uncovered below it, towards the pe- 
dicle or foot-ftalk. 
The fourth part of a flower is the petala, which re- 
ceives this extraordinary fupply of nourifhment be- 
fore the blowing ; thefe upon the reverfe, are firft en- 
larged towards the pedicle, and are afterwards ex- 
tended and ftretched forth in proportion to the en- 
largement of the attire ; at firft they are all groffer, 
and more fucculent towards the origin, and gradually 
become thinner and broader. The ftamina of mono- 
petalous flowers do, for the moft part, arife partly 
from the petalon itfelf, and partly from the calyx ; 
efpecially if the ftamina correfpond in number to the 
petala, as in the Hexapetalas, or Polypetalte Liliaceas 
of Tournefort, where every ftamen arifes oppofite to 
the middle of the petalon. 
This obfervation (how and when this more than or- 
dinary fupply of nourifhment is carried to the flowers) 
eafily demonftrates wherein the analogy of the organs 
of generation in plants and animals confifts. 
In animals, the feminal matter is received by proper 
veffels from the fame blood from whence the other 
fecretions, fit for the prefervation of the animal oeco- 
nomy 
1 
