F L O 
green vegetables, cut down while full of fap, into a 
large heap, and prefiing them clofe down •, by which 
they grow warm, hot, fmoke, and break out into 
flame, 
A third way is by mixing certain cold bodies : thus 
water, and fpirit of wine, being fir it warmed, grow 
much hotter by being mixed ; alfo oil of cloves, cin- 
namon, &c. being mixed with fpirit of wine, become 
exceeding hot, and burft forth like volcanos. 
The like effefts may be had from feveral hard and 
dry bodies, as fulphur and fteel filings. 
To conclude : on fire and the effefts thereof, depend 
all fluidity of humours, juices, &c. all vegetation, 
putrefaction, fermentation, animal heat, &c. 
As all the four elements, water, air, earth, and fire, 
are very conducive to the work of vegetation, and no 
one of them more than this of fire ; I conclude, that 
thefe few hints, which I have collected from the moll 
approved authors, concerning the nature and proper- 
ties of it, as they may be ufeful, would not be unac- 
ceptable to the ingenious and ftudious pradtifers of 
horticulture, which induced me to infertthem here. 
F I R-T R E E. See Abies. 
FISTULAR FLOWERS [Flores Fiftulares, 
of Fiftula, Lat. a pipe] fuch as are compounded of 
many long, hollow, fmall flowers, like pipes. 
F L A M M U L A J O V I S. See Clematis. 
FLESH, among botanifts, is all the fubftance of 
any fruit that is between the outer rind and the ftone, 
or that part of any root that is fit to be eaten. 
FLO RIFE ROUS [florifer, Lat.] bearing flowers. 
FLORIST, one who is converfant with, or (killed 
in flowers. 
FLO RULE NT, FLORULOUS [florentulus, 
florulus, Lat.] Flowery, full of flowers j alfo blof- 
foming. 
FLOS AFRICANUS. See Tagetes. 
FLOS PASSIONIS. See Passiflora. 
FLOS SOLIS. See Helianthus. 
FLOS TRINITATIS. See Viola. 
FLOWER: a flower is a natural production which 
precedes the fruit, which includes the grain or feed. 
Though a flower is a thing fo well known, yet the 
definition of this part of a plant is as various almoft as 
the authors who define it. Jungius defines it to be the 
more tender part of a plant, remarkable for its colour, 
or form, or both, cohering with the fruit. Yet this 
author himfelf confeffes, that this definition is too 
narrow ; for fome of thofe bodies which he allows to 
be flowers are remote from the fruit. 
Mr. Ray fays, it coheres, for the moft part, with 
the rudiments of the fruit. Thus the words, for the 
moft part are hardly to be admitted into definitions. 
Tournefort defines it to be a part of a plant very often 
remarkable for its peculiar colours, for the moft part 
adhering to the young fruit, to which it feems to af- 
ford the firft nourifhment, in order to explicate its 
moft tender parts. Which definition is dill more de- 
ficient than the former, by this uncertain mode of 
exprefiion. 
Pontedera, the profeflbr of botany at Padua, defines 
it to be a part of a plant unlike the reft in form 
and nature •, if the flower has a tube, it always ad- 
heres to the embryo, or is very near it, for whofe 
ufe it is fubfervient ; but if it wants a tube, there 
is no embryo adhering. 
This dennkion is far from being clear, for it is fcarce 
intelligible, and is liable to this objection, that it may 
include fome parts of a plant which no perfon ever 
called by that name ; for a root, a ftalk, or a leaf, 
are parts of a plant unlike the reft in form and nature, 
having no tube, and fo do not adhere to any embryo, 
and thus by Pontedera’s definition are flowers. 
Monf. Jufiieu, the Paris profeflbr, feems not to have 
fucceeded much better in this affair : he fays, That 
is properly called ’ a flower, which is compofed of 
chives, and a piftillum, and is of ufe in generation. 
But this is too defective j for there are many plants in 
which the piftillium or ftyle is found a confiderable 
diftance from the chives ; there are many flowers 
FLO 
that have no piftillum, whether that word be taken 
to fignify the embryo of the fruit, or its appendix, 
and many which have no chives. 
But the late Monfieur Vaillant feems to be happier, 
in forming a clearer idea of this part of a plant. 
We find in the ledure he read in the Royal Garden 
at Paris, that the flowers, ftriflly fpeaking, ought to 
be reckoned the organs which conftitute the different 
fexes in plants ; feeing they are fometimes found with- 
out any covering, and that the coats or petals, which 
immediately encompals them, are defigned only to 
cover and defend them : but (fays he) as thefe coats 
are the moft conlpicuous and moft beautiful part of 
the compofition, which is called by the name of 
flower ; to thele coats therefore I give the name of 
flower, of whatfoever ftrudure or colour they be ; 
whether they encompafs the organs of both fexes to- 
gether, or contain only one of them, or only fome 
parts depending on one of them, provided always 
that they be not of the fame figure of the leaves of 
the plant. 
But, in my opinion, Dr. Martyn has been happier, 
in his definition of a flower, than all thofe above- 
mentioned : he defines a flower to be the organs of 
generation of both fexes adhering to a common pla- 
centa, together with their common coverings ; or of 
either fex feparateiy, with its proper coverings, if it 
have any. 
The parts of a flower are, i. The germen or ovary ; 
which is the rudiment of the fruit, and fo is properly 
the female organ of generation. 
2. The ftyle, which is a body accompanying the 
ovary, either arifing from the top of it, or (landing 
as an axis in the middle, with the embryos of the 
feeds round it. 
3. The fummits, or apices, which are thofe bodies 
that contain the prolific powder, analogous to the 
male fperm in animals ; and generally hang upon 
(lender threads, which are called the chives or (la- 
mina. 
The petals are thofe tender fine coloured leaves, 
which are generally the moft conlpicuous parts of a 
flower. 
The empalement, or calyx, is thofe tender leaves 
which cover the other parts of a flower. 
Flowers, according to the number of their petals, 
are called monopetalous, dipetalous, tripetaious, te- 
trapetalous, &c. 
The ftrudlureof flowers is indeed very various •, but, 
according to Dr. Grew, the generality have thefe three 
parts in common, viz. the empalement, the foliation, 
and the attire. 
Mr. Ray reckons, that every perfect flower has the 
petals, (lamina, apices, and (lylus or piftil ; and 
luch as want any of thefe parts, he accounts imperfedt 
flowers. 
In moft plants there is a perianthum, calyx, or flower- 
cup ; which is of a ftronger confidence than the flower 
itfelf, and defigned to (Lengthen or preferve it. 
Flowers are diftinguifhed into male, female, or her- 
maphrodite. 
The male flowers are thofe in which are the (lamina, 
but have no germen or ftyle, the fame which botanifts 
call ftamineous flowers •, thefe have no fruit. 
The female flowers are fuch as contain the germen 
and ftyle, or piftil, which is fucceeded with fruit, 
and are called fruitful, or knitting flowers. 
The hermaphrodite flowers are fuch in which the two 
fexes are contained, i. e. the male and female parts 
are found in the fame flower, which are the mod se- 
neralkind ; fuch are the Daffodil, Lily, Tulip, Al- 
thaea, Geranium, Rofemary, Sage, Thyme. 
The ftructure of part£ is much the fame in thofe 
where the fexes are divided ; the difference between 
them confiding in this, that the (lamina and fummits 
or apices, i. e. the male parts in thefe are feparate 
from the ftyles or piftils ; being fometimes on the 
fame plants, and fometimes on different ones. 
Among the plants which bear both male and female 
parts, but at a diftanee from each other are reckoned 
the 
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