fe£ted in the apices, which, when ripe, burft forth in s 
little particles like dull ; fome of them fall into the 
‘orifice of the piftil, and are either conveyed thence 
into the utricle, to fecundify the female ova, or 
lodged in the piftil, where, by their magnetic virtue, 
they draw the nourifhment from the other parts of 
the plant into the embryos of the fruit, making them 
fwell, grow, &c. 
In flowers that turn down, as the Cyclamen, and the 
Imperial Crown, the piftil is much longer than the 
ftamina, that their duft may fall from their apices in 
fufficient quantities on the piftil, for the bufinefs of 
impregnation. 
Mr. Geoffroy allures us, That in all the obfervations 
he had made, the cutting off the piftil before it 
could be impregnated by the farina, adfually ren- 
dered the plant barren for the feafon, and the fruit 
abortive. 
In many kinds of plants, as the Oak, Pine, Willow, 
&c. the flowers, Mr. Geoffroy obferves, have their 
ftamina and apices, whofe farina may eafily im- 
pregnate the rudiments of the fruit, which are not 
far off. 
Indeed there is fome difficulty in reconciling this 
fyftem with a certain fpecies of plants, which bear 
flowers without fruit ; and another fpecies of the 
fame kind and denomination, which bear fruit with- 
out flowers ; fuch are the Palm, Hemp, Hop, Pop- 
lar, &c. which are hence diftinguifhed into male 
and female ; for how fhould the farina of the male 
here, come to impregnate the ova of the female ? 
This difficulty Mr. Geoffroy folves, by fuppofing the 
wind to be the vehicle that conveys the male duft to 
the female uterus, which is confirmed by an inftance 
of Jovianus Potanus, of a Angle female Palm-tree 
growing in a foreft, which never bore fruit, till, 
having rifen above the other trees of the foreft, 
and being then in a condition to receive the farina of 
the male by the wind, it began to bear fruit in abun- 
dance. 
As to the manner wherein the farina fecundifies, Mr. 
Geoffroy advances two opinions : 
jFirft, That the farina being always found of a ful- 
phureous compofition, and full of fubtil and pene- 
trating parts (as appears from its fprightly odour) 
which, falling on the piftils of the flowers, there re- 
folves, and the fubtileft parts of it, penetrating the 
fubftance of the piftil, excite a fermentation, which 
putting the latent juices of the young fruit in mo- 
tion, occafions the part? to unfold the young plant 
that is inclofed in the embryo of the feed. 
In this hypothefis, the plant in miniature is fup- 
pofed to be contained in the feed, and to want only 
a proper juice to unfold its parts, and to make them 
grow. 
The fecond opinion is, That the farina of the male 
plant is the firft: germ or femen of the new plant, and 
ftands in need of nothing to enable it to grow or un- 
fold, but a fuitable nidus with the juice it finds pre- 
pared in the embryo of the feed or ovary. 
It may be obferved, that thefe two theories of vege- 
table generation bear a ftrid analogy to thofe two 
of animal generation, viz. either that the young ani- 
mal is in the femen mafculinum, and only ftands 
in need of the juice of the matrix to cherifh and 
bring it forth •, or that the female ovum contains the 
animal, and requires only the male feed to excite a 
fermentation. 
Mr. Geoffroy rather makes the proper feed to be in 
the farina, inafmuch as the belt microfcopes do not 
difcover the lead appearance of any bud in the little 
embryos of the grains, when they are examined, be- 
fore the apices have fhed their duft. 
In leguminous plants, if the petala and ftamina be 
removed, and the piftil, or that part which becomes 
the pod, be viewed with the microfcope before the 
flower be open, thofe little green tranfparent veftculte, 
which are to become grains, will appear in their na- 
tural order, yet ftiil fhewing nothing die but the mere 
cgat, or fkin of the grain. 
If you continue to obferve the flowers as they ad- 
vance for feveral days iucceffiveiy, you will find them 
to fwell, and, by degrees, to become replete with a 
nmpid liquor ; in which, when the farina comes to 
be fired, and the leaves of the flower to fall, there may 
be obferved - little greeniffi fpeck, or globule, float- 
ing about at large. 
There is not at firft any appearance of an' organiza- 
tion in this little body ; but in time, as it^grows, 
you may begin to diftinguiffi two little leaves like two 
irnall horns •, as the little body grows, the liouor di- 
minifhes infenfibly, till at length the grain becomes 
qinte opake ; and upon opening it, the cavity will be 
found filled with a young plant in miniature, confift- 
mg of a little germ, or plantula, a little root, and 
the lobes of the Bean, or Pea. 
The manner wherein this germ of the apex enters the 
veficula of the grain, is not very difficult to deter- 
mine . for, befides that the cavity of the piftil reaches 
from the top to the embryos of the grains, or thofe 
veftculse, have a little aperture correfponding to the 
extremity of the cavity of the piftil, fo that the fm all 
duft,^ or farina, may eaiily fall, or find an ealy paff- 
fage in the aperture in the mouth of the veiTels, which 
is the embryo of the grain. 
The aperture, or cicatricula, is much the fame in 
both grains •, and it is eafily obferved in Peas, Beans, 
&c. without a microfcope. 
Dr. Patrick Blair, treating of the generation of 
plants, fays, That a vegetative life is common to 
them, as well as animals \ and that the propagation 
or production of the fpecies is the effed of the v-eo-e- 
tative, not the fenfitive life in animals, as well as. ia 
plants j and that if there be a neceffity of the con- 
currence of two different fexes in animals, at the be- 
ginning or generating of the fpecies, the fame ne- 
ceffity muft be in plants too ; for as a cow, a mare, 
a hen, a ffie-reptile, an infeft, &c. cannot produce 
an animal without the male, no more can it be fup- 
pofed, that a plant can produce fertile feed without 
the concurrence of the male plant, or the male parts 
of the plant. 
Mr. Ray fays, That he will not deny, that both trees 
and herbs may produce fruit, and even come to ma- 
turity, without the male feed being fprinkled upon 
them. For though moft birds do not lay eggs with- 
out congrefs of the male, yet the hen often does it 
without copulating with the cock, but then thefe 
eggs are barren and wind eggs ; juft fo, though a fe- 
male plant may produce feed of itielf, yet that feed is 
never fertile. For, 
Firft, As the work of generation in animals does not 
pioceed from their animal or fenfitive life but from 
their vegitative, which being the fame as in plants, 
that operation muft be performed after the fame 
manner in both ; therefore, as there is a neceffity 
of two different fexes in animals, it muft be fo too 
in plants. 
Secondly, As paffive feminal matter in female ani- 
mals cannot be productive or fertile of itfelf, without 
being impregnated, animated, or its particles fet in 
motion and dilated by the adtive principles of the 
male feminal matter ; neither can the female feed 
in plants be rendered fertile, until it be impregnated 
by the farina foecundans from the male parts of the 
plants. 
As to the flowers of plants, if they were not affift- 
ing to, or if there were not fome extraordinary ufe 
from them in the perfedlion of the feed, they would 
not be lb often obferved upon plants as they are. But 
fince there is no fruit or feed without a previous flower; 
and fince where the one is obvious the other is con- 
fpicuous, and fince one is fcarce to be obferved with 
the naked eye, neither is the other this implies a re- 
lation between them, that the one of them is not to 
be expefted without the other. 
It is true, there may be flowers upon a plant, where 
the fruit is feldom feen, efpeciaily in thefe northern 
climates ; fuch as the Pervinca, the Nymphaea alba 
minima, and feveral others ; where the planf exhaufts 
the 
